Those Who Are Lost
by WalkingDeadCrazy
Summary: After stumbling on a girl in the woods, Luke and Nick discover that Carver is not too far away. With the rest of the group, they head towards the mountains and hope that Carver will lose interest. Unfortunately, only the opposite occurs. Through struggle, pain, and hardship, they soon learn what living in the apocalypse really means.
1. Found in the Woods

She breathed heavily as she ran through the woods. Her medium-length blond hair flew behind her as she dodged small rocks and tree roots on the ground. The voices from behind her were becoming softer as she put more distance between her and them. _Never again,_ she thought to herself, _am I going to trust a stranger_. She gently cupped the fresh cut on her left shoulder, a "warning" as the man put it. He thought she knew people who she hadn't, which had cost her what would become a new scar. Luckily she didn't think it would need stitches, but it sure hurt like hell.

Snap.

She looked to her right just as a walker stumbled out of a bush and towards her. She swiftly took out her newly-found knife and stabbed the thing right through the eye. After stumbling back a few steps from the impact and removing her weapon from the walker's skull, she continued running. The burning feeling in her legs begged her to stop but she knew she shouldn't. Light tears started to fill her eyes as she bit down on her tongue, trying to suppress the pain in her shoulder. Her green long-sleeved shirt was already stained with old walker blood, now soaking in her own. She didn't stop running until her body couldn't take it anymore and she collapsed to the ground, shaking. She hadn't eaten in two days and hadn't drank water in what seemed like forever. Her eyelids were heavy and she was about to close them when she heard voices… again.

She didn't recognize them but she wasn't going to take any risks. She darted her eyes around, finally finding a tree that looked climbable. She gradually stood up and stumbled towards the tree.

Gripping the lowest branch she forced herself up, unable to see past her tears as she strained her shoulder to lift her bodyweight. She let out a sharp breath once she flung her left leg over the branch. She knew her body couldn't take trying to climb up further and that she would probably fall in the process. The voices were getting closer and she could hear the faint crunching of their footsteps. She lay her body as flat as she could on the branch, hoping the thin patches of mostly brown leaves could hide her from sight. It was getting close to winter and she could already see her breath.

"I don't know, man. It seemed like the sound was coming from this way. It could have been a deer but I haven't seen one of those in ages."

"Yeah you're probably right. Let's just try to find some squirrels or somethin' and head back so that we can camp out for the night."

Blinking away her tears, the young woman peered through the leaves getting a good look at two men whom she hadn't recognized from the last group she had encountered. The one had an orange shirt and medium length chestnut hair, the other taller one with darker hair and a baseball hat on. She could tell that they weren't starving and possibly had some food on them—maybe even water. She was tempted to call out to them but thought of her shoulder and decided to keep quiet. The two men walked closer to her tree, looking around for anything edible and making sure to be quiet in case there were squirrels. The woman could still feel the burning sensation in her shoulder from raising herself onto the tree and squeezed her thumbs to prevent herself from crying out loud. She couldn't help but squeal slightly.

"What the fuck was that?" asked the man with the darker hair. The other motioned for him to be quiet as he slowly stepped closer to the tree looking towards where the sound came from. The young-woman tried to keep as still as possible with her ears thumping from her racing heartbeat. As the man got closer she knew that she was going to be found and in his next step he locked eyes with her.

"Holy shit!" The man exclaimed, raising his rifle up towards the woman whose heart skipped a beat. She didn't know what was coming next but didn't want any part of it.

"Who are you?" asked the man with the hat. The woman slowly sat up, shakily gripping the tree.

"I asked who the hell you are?!" The same man repeated angrily.

"I… I don't want any trouble. I'm not looking for food or supplies… please just leave me alone and I promise you won't see me again." The shorter man seemed to take this into consideration.

"No, Luke, this girl could be working with Carver. If we let her go then she can go back and tell him where we are!" argued the other.

The woman quickly blurted out, "No, I promise you, I'm telling the truth. I'm not with a group or working with anybody! I've been by myself for a long time and I don't plan on changing that."

"Well then what do we do with her, Nick?" asked the man known as Luke.

"Shit… I don't know. But we can't let her go! We should take her back and let the group decide." Replied the younger man whom the woman now knew as Nick.

"Look how shaken up she already is. That'll just scare her to death!"

"Fine," the woman interrupted, wanting to end the argument. "You can take me wherever you need to take me, if it means that I can leave afterwards."

"Okay" said Luke after a few seconds of consideration.

He stepped forward to help the woman down.

"Hey, so what's your name, anyway?" asked Nick.

"Gemma" she responded.


	2. A Day Away

"Gemma, well isn't that a name you don't hear every day?" decided Luke.

"I get that a lot."

"Well, I'm Luke and this is Nick." Nick waved slightly towards the woman. She smiled back shyly. She didn't know what she thought of this man but Luke seemed more pleasant. She decided to walk next to him. Luke noticed the fresh blood on her shoulder and stopped.

"Hold up, is that a-"

"No!" Gemma quickly cut him off. "Oh God no, I would be hysterical right now if it was."

"How'd you get it?" Nick asked with a questionable tone. Gemma debated whether or not she should tell the two. She wanted them to trust her, but her story sounded a little ridiculous. What kind of person cuts open someone else's shoulder as a warning because said person didn't know about a group they were trying to locate? Then it hit her. Could this be the group the man was talking about? After all, Nick did mention someone named Carver who was trying to find where they were.

"I uh..." she stumbled on her words."Well this is going to sound absurd but this morning I came across a small group. I was… am… in desperate need of food and water. I approached them thinking they could spare me some, or even point me towards a creek or something. Immediately this man started asking me questions about a group he was trying to find," Gemma noticed Nick and Luke exchange a glance at each other. She continued, "I've been on my own for months so I of course had no idea who he was talking about. He didn't believe me and pulled me towards him and gave me this," she nodded towards her shoulder, "and told me it was a "warning". Walkers soon appeared because of my screaming and as soon as he let me go I ran. Luckily, they weren't able to catch up to me." Gemma looked at both Nick and Luke, both of their expressions seemed worried.

"We have to go" stated Luke. Nick instantly understood and they both started running towards the direction they originally came from. Gemma put two and two together and realized this was the man they were running from. Why would he be following them and why was he so desperate to find them? She jogged lightly after them, her legs still sore from earlier. Eventually she saw more people standing around a small fire with sleeping bags on the ground. Must be their group she thought to herself.

"Guys, we have no time to explain-" Luke panted, leaning over with his hands on his knees.

"Who the hell is she?" The heavily pregnant woman asked, pointing at Gemma.

"Carver's less than a day away!" blurted out Nick, which caused the woman to drop her jaw.

"But… how…" stammered the largest man in the group who stood with his hand gently resting on the pregnant woman's back. Gemma assumed they were together.

"We've been walking all day for weeks! He couldn't have been right on our heels when we escaped!" exclaimed a man with a slight accent. Behind him, slightly, stood a young girl who looked like she could be in her early teens. "How do you know?" she asked, her eyes huge with fear behind her round glasses.

"We found this girl, Gemma," Luke answered, motioning to the woman behind him. He gently turned her around so that the group could see her wound. "She told us that earlier today he gave her this after he demanded that she knew who and where we were, when she hadn't."

"It's already getting dark, we can't move now!" explained the pregnant woman. She was right, nobody in their right mind would walk at night when walkers could be hidden by the darkness Gemma thought to herself. It was quiet for a moment. Luke scratched the back of his head and paced back and forth. He finally sighed.

"Well, if everyone agrees it would be the best idea, then I think our safest bet for now is to leave at dawn and stick to our original plan: to head towards to mountains. Hell, if the snow slows down lurkers up there then it better slow down Carver."

Everyone nodded their heads. There was this awkward silence as everyone looked over at Gemma.

"Oh! I guess I should introduce everyone. This is Rebecca, her husband Alvin, Carlos, and his daughter Sarah." explained Luke.

"I'm Gemma" the young woman said shyly. She had always been shy. Apparently even an apocalypse couldn't change that. Most everyone, except Rebecca, gave small smiles towards the blond haired woman.

"Can I have a word with you?" Rebecca asked Luke, motioning for him to step aside with her. Carlos, Alvin, and Nick followed.

Sarah just stood there, not seeming to care what the "adults" were talking about. She walked over to Gemma.

"Hi!" the girl said almost as soft as a whisper.

"Hi" replied Gemma, a little awkwardly.

"I'm Sarah. I just have to say that I love your name! It's so unique, unlike my name" she said with a frown.

"Yeah, well I hated my name when I was your age, too" replied Gemma.

"Why would you hate your name?" Sarah asked, genuinely looking concerned.

"Well, like you said it's not very popular. I hated it because of that. All throughout school, whenever we had a substitute, they would always stumble while reading my name out loud from the attendance list. It was almost like they weren't sure if my name was actually supposed to be spelled that way. In middle school I got made fun of all of the time for it. Kids would say that it sounded like my parents were drunk when I was born and told the doctors to name me 'Gemma' instead of 'Jenna'. But in high school we had to do this research project on our name and I learned to appreciate it more" she ended, giving Sarah a smile. She looked over at the group huddled in a meeting.

Meanwhile in the group meeting:

"Why did you bring her here?" asked Rebecca with an annoyed tone.

"We just found her hiding in a tree. We weren't sure if she was working with Carver or not so we decided to bring her back so that we could decide as a group what to do with her" replied Nick.

"Along the way she told us about how she got the cut on her shoulder and we ran to go tell you guys… without really thinking" added Luke.

"Well now what do we do with her?!" asked Rebecca, a little too loud. She noticed Gemma look over towards her.

"We can't just tell her to beat it. We dragged her all the way back here, when she originally insisted that we just leave her alone. I mean, look at her. She seems so weak and mentioned to us that she hadn't eaten or drank water in a while." Luke observed.

Nick nodded in agreement. "Least we can do is feed her and help clean up her cut" he added.

"If Carver knows who she is now, I think that she should come with us," suggested Alvin, who ignored his wife's glare. "It's not safe for her to stick around after we leave. If he finds her again, who knows what he'll do to her. He already sliced her shoulder open." Rebecca looked distracted in her thoughts for a second, then quickly nodded in agreement with her husband. "Oh, okay, I didn't assume you would actually agree with me quite so quickly" Alvin chuckled to himself.

"I'll make the offer to her" said Nick.

Gemma looked up to see Nick walking over towards her.

"Listen, the group want to make an offer for you to stay. You don't have to accept it, but it's safer in numbers than by yourself against them." "Who are you referring to, the walkers or that…" she couldn't think of his name, "'Carver' group?" Gemma asked sarcastically.

Nick chuckled, "Well, both I guess."

Gemma thought about his offer for a bit. Was it smart to be with a group that was linked to this crazy lunatic who goes around hurting innocent people? Or was it smarter to stick by herself, which she had been doing for so long. Her stomach grumbled. She hadn't been able to hunt for food for herself because of her small knife and lack of gun.

"Okay, I'm in." she finally said.

Nick smiled. He was glad that she had decided to stay. Another pair of hands was always useful I fighting off lurkers and her small figure could be useful in the long shot when it came to getting supplies.

"Yay!" squealed Sarah who instantly wrapper her arms around Gemma. Gemma wasn't really sure how to react right away since it had been so long since she's interacted with a peppy teenager. Nick laughed as Gemma patted Sarah's back lightly.

"Let's get you some food."


	3. The Same Goal

Nick led Gemma over towards the fire to have a seat. Sarah sat down to the right of her before Nick handed Gemma a can of beans.

"Thanks," she said, giving an appreciative smile. She noticed how the fire caught the icy blue of his eyes and she stared at him for a moment before catching herself and looking down again at her beans. He sat down next to her and she could feel the light heat forming on her cheeks. Luckily no one seemed to notice. She quickly finished her food, trying not to look like a starving dog gulping down its food without chewing. Carlos walked over and knelt down beside her.

"I'm a doctor. If you don't mind, I'd like to take a look at that cut," he asked. She nodded and took off her shirt to reveal a black tank top underneath. It was cold but she was glad to have the wound looked at. Carlos gently examined the cut.

"It doesn't look too deep, so it won't need stitches. However, you don't want to get it infected. I'm going to have to sterilize it with some peroxide. It's going to hurt like hell but it will do its job." Gemma bit her lip in preparation of the sting she knew was going to hurt like… well what Carlos said. Carlos poured some water onto a clean cloth and began softly dabbing around the cut to clean off the wound. Then taking another clean cloth he started applying the peroxide. It felt like someone lit her shoulder on fire. She cried out a little and squeezed her thumbs. It was a trick that her pediatrician had told her to do when she was little and had to get shots. It didn't help the pain, but it was comforting.

"All done," Carlos assured her after a few minutes. He grabbed a bandage and wrapped it around her neck, across her chest, and under her left arm again. It felt like she was the apocalypse's Miss United States.

"She's beauty and she's grace…" Luke mumbled to himself. Everybody laughed as Gemma did a princess wave. She put her shirt pack on and shivered, holding her arms close to herself. She eyed one of the sleeping bags and thought about sleeping warmly tonight. Nick noticed her looking at the sleeping bags and spoke up.

"Oh, shit, what are we going to do about sleeping arrangements?" Luke thought for a moment. "Well, someone's just gonna have to double up," he stated.

"I could share my sleeping bag with Gemma," suggested Sarah. Carlos looked a little worried at the thought.

"Sarah, why don't you share with me so that Gemma has her own sleeping bag to herself?" Carlos asked. Gemma was about to open her mouth to object when she noticed Nick's hand move slightly up as if to say "just leave it" and she closed it again.

"Well, that's extremely kind of you, Carlos. Thank you." Gemma smiled at him. He smiled back. Sarah, however looked a little disappointed. She was looking forward to having a new friend who she could gossip and giggle with at night.

"We should catch some shut eye 'cause we have to get a move on early tomorrow," said Luke, poking out the fire. Gemma slipped into her sleeping bag, feeling the warmth from her body filling up around her. She felt cozy for the first time in months and quickly drifted off…

She woke up to the sounds of crunching feet and soft voices. She felt dewy as if it has rained on her the night before. She imagined the sounds of a crackling campfire and had a sweet memory of waking up on July mornings while camping when she was little. She stretched her arms before crawling out of the sleeping bag and standing up. She suddenly felt awkward, not knowing who to talk to. The only person who she had really had a decent conversation with was Nick, who of course was still sleeping. She started walking over to Sarah when she noticed Carlos nearby. She didn't know why he had reacted that way last night but she figured she shouldn't push it by talking to Sarah.

"Hey." Gemma looked to her left to see Luke walking towards her.

"Hey," she responded quietly.

"You don't have to be shy around me," he said with a small smile.

"I know, but you barely even know me and I feel like a little bit of a burden fro you guys. I'm just another mouth to feed. Why are you so open to letting new people in?" Gemma asked.

"Well, the group usually isn't. I however don't see the problem. You're not just another mouth to feed, you're another person to help defend the group. And it's always nice to have new people to talk to." He went quiet for a moment then added, "At the end of the world, lots of people are afraid to trust others, but we're all just trying to fight for our lives. We all have the same goal in mind: To try to beat this thing. Hell, I don't think it will ever happen."

Gemma nodded, "You're right. I can see the group's point of view, though. I think if I was ever a part of the 'Carver group', like I assume you guys were, then I would have trust issues, too." She hesitated, not knowing whether this would be a touchy subject for Luke or not. "Whatever did happen between you and Carver?" Luke looked up for a second before sighing.

"It's a long story that I think would be better told while we're walking. We better wake up the rest of the group." He walked away towards Nick's sleeping bag and kicked him awake.

"What the hell, man? Why can't you just wake me up like you do everyone else?" he whined.

"Cause you don't wake up when I wake you up like everyone else. Get up." Luke walked away to go wake up a sleeping Alvin. Gemma watched as Nick rubbed his eyes like a little kid before yawning and sitting up. He looked at her.

"What are you looking at?" he said with a smile that he was obviously trying to hide.

"You look like a six year old when you wake up," she responded with a smirk. He let out a small chuckle before standing up.

"Why again did we let you stay?" he asked sarcastically. She shrugged her shoulders and started walking towards the small fire, warming herself.


	4. In the Beginning

Once everybody was up the group packed their things and headed towards the mountains once again.

"How long do you think it will take before we get there?" asked Carlos. Luke, at the front of the group, unfolded his map and made the estimate in his head.

"A few weeks, I suppose."

"A few weeks?!" Rebecca almost shouted. "This baby is not staying inside me for a few weeks!"

"Maybe we'll find a nice place to stop along the way and have junior safely," suggested her husband. Gemma looked over to see Rebecca put a hand on her round stomach. "Now you stay in there a little longer," she could hear Rebecca mumble.

"Hey Gem!" sang Sarah cheerfully as she skipped up beside the young woman.

"Gem?" Gemma asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, you're nickname! Friends give each other nicknames," she explained. _Friends? _Gemma thought to herself. _I've only known the girl for a day._

"Then I should be calling you Sar?" she asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"No, my name is too short to have a nickname!"

"I think mine is, too, kid." Gemma didn't really think of Sarah as a kid. She was practically the same height as Gemma. Who really is a kid in the apocalypse anyway?

"I'm not a kid. Nick and Luke joke about me being one all of the time. I'm fifteen, only three years away from being an adult officially."

Gemma chuckled, "Yeah, I know. With all of the weapons and killing everyone has to do nowadays, nobody's a kid." Carlos looked towards to pair and took Sarah's arm, leading her away from Gemma.

"That's enough talk about this." He glared at Gemma slightly. Gemma didn't know what she had done, but it really seemed to piss of Carlos. Nick noticed Gemma's face fall slightly and slowed down his pace until it was only the two of them walking in the back of the group.

"Hey, don't mind Carlos. He can be a dick sometimes but he's just trying to protect his daughter." Gemma looked up at him.

"I didn't know that I couldn't be talking to a teenager about killing walkers _four years_ into this damn apocalypse. Or at least I think it's been four," she mumbled to herself at the end.

"Yeah, it threw me off, too, when I first met him. He hasn't taught her how to use a weapon yet and I doubt he ever will." Gemma was shocked.

"How will she ever be able to defend herself?" Nick looked straight ahead, shaking his head slowly. The both started to say something but then stopped. Nick scratched the back of his head.

"You go first," he said with a hint of pink on his cheeks.

Gemma laughed a little awkwardly before asking, "So what happened with you guys and Carver? I mean, why is he so adamant about finding you? In the past, I've been with groups where people have gone separate ways, but we all understood and didn't chase them down afterwards." Nick cleared his throat before answering.

"Well, it's kind of a long story."

"I like long stories." He glanced down at the girl looking up at him.

"At the beginning of this, when the shit hit the fan, Luke, my uncle, my mom, and myself all survived together. We came across this huge 'safe haven' as my mom referred to it. Well, this 'safe haven' was no haven at all. We quickly realized that it was almost like a dictatorship lead by this guy named Bill Carver. Sure, we had all of the necessities that we needed, but people were being abused by this man if things didn't go his way. That's where we met Carlos, Sarah, Rebecca, and Alvin. We were planning to escape earlier than we did, but we were still ignorant on this whole disease that turns everyone into lurkers. We thought we could cure this woman who was bit and while my mom was checking on her…" He paused, looking down at the ground. Gemma realized what he was about to say and put a hand on his arm, squeezing him gently to let him know that he didn't have to say it. He looked at her and continued. "Well, she got bit and Carver… he forced me to put her out of her misery. He forced me to kill her."

"Nick—"

"And I was a mess afterwards so we had to wait to escape. Luke wouldn't leave me there. We've been gone for a couple of months now. I didn't think he would care about us anymore." He then looked over to Rebecca.

"What happened to your uncle?' Gemma asked quietly.

"The same thing that happens to everyone." Gemma looked away, feeling awful for asking.

"Hey, it's what happens. Everyone watches people that they care about vanish around them."

"I'm sorry"

"Don't be."

The pair walked on in silence.

"What were you going to ask me before?" Gemma asked to change the subject that they both were thinking about.

"I want to know what your story is," he said with a bit of curiosity. "How'd you get here?"

"Well, I was hiding in a tree when two guys found me and brought me back to their group against my will."

"It was not against your will."

"I asked to be left alone" she said with a small smile.

"Okay, whatever, but what's your _full_ story."

"I'm awful at short summaries."

"I like long stories," he pleaded with a smile. Gemma rolled her eyes.

"I was eighteen and I lived in Philadelphia, so when this whole thing started, my parents, sister, and I headed to D.C. where the government had set up a 'safe facility' where we could all live "until the disease dies down" as they advertised it. The drive should have only been two hours but we had been sitting in traffic for longer than that. We assumed it was because everyone from everywhere was going to the same place as we were, so we weren't worried. Eventually, we saw a huge flock of dead people swarming the cars in front of us. People were screaming and running in every direction—I couldn't tell the difference between the dead or alive. My parents, sister, and I got out of the car and it was like I was watching a horror movie as I saw a walker bite into my mom's throat and then into my dad as he tried to pull the thing away from her. I was just standing there when someone pulled my arm and we ran. I wasn't even thinking about my sister, I wasn't even crying. It's like my body had gone into shock and I felt like I wasn't even there. I was just following everyone who was running into the woods. We ran for hours with short breaks but the walkers were still following us. Eventually we all split up, forming small groups. We didn't even know what we were doing, we just found food, supplies, and killed the dead. I've been jumping from group to group for the past few years before I decided that maybe being alone was the best option. And then… then I found you guys," she finished, looking at the ground. The story reminded both of them how they'd felt during the first days of this mess. Gemma felt Nicks arm wrap around her as he pulled her into a side hug.

"Thanks for telling me," he said quietly.


	5. Across the Bridge

"Here," Luke said, tossing Gemma a pair of binoculars. "Tell me if you find anything." Gemma slipped them around her neck and began climbing the evergreen tree, scratching her knees in the process. Her shoulder had healed up really well and was now nothing more than a scar. Once she had gotten up about 6 branches, she crawled out to the edge, placing the binoculars on her face.

"There's what looks to be a ski lodge with a chairlift to the left of it… and a bridge… looks close by… with a small house at the end of it." She climbed down and jumped off the last branch. Nick took a step towards her as if her was going to catch her, but quickly stopped himself when he realized what he was doing. He looked around to make sure no one noticed, which it seemed like they hadn't.

"Okay, well, the ski lodge looks like a good spot to rest. And who knows, maybe Carver has given up by now and we'll have the lodge to ourselves."

"What's the likelihood of that?" Rebecca grumbled. She was heavily pregnant and Carlos predicted that she could have the baby any day now. The days were getting shorter and snow had already begun to fall. The only trees the group saw anymore were evergreens, which were notorious for getting all of their sap stuck in the hair of those who weren't paying attention while walking close to them. The only way to get the dreaded stickiness out was to clean your hair in ice cold river water which was never fun. No one in the group had a proper jacket for the freezing conditions, most wearing thin material long sleeved shirts.

"Okay, Gemma and I will head across the bridge to make sure it's safe and free of lurkers." Luke planned.

"Why her and not me?" asked Nick.

"Nick, you and I both know you act on instinct and don't think before you do. It's safer for you to stay here. Gemma knows where the bridge is," Luke explained to no avail.

"I can come, I have a clear head now." Nick insisted. Luke sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Fine, okay, you can come. Alvin, you and Carlos are watching the rest of the group while we're gone. We'll let you know when it's safe to cross." Alvin nodded and checked the amount of bullets in his gun. The trio walked over towards the bridge with Gemma leading the way.

"Right over there," she guided, pointing to the right. The group walked quietly as they noticed six walkers at the end of the bridge.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Nick asked.

"I'll take the two on the left, Nick, you can take the on in the middle and the one on the bridge, Luke, you can take the one on the right and the one behind the rock."

"Sounds like a plan," Luke said with a grin. The three walked towards the group of walkers at once. Gemma quickly kicked the one walker's knees in before stabbing it in the eye while it was down. It was a trick that someone from a previous group she was in had told her. She turned around and saw her other walker come up from behind Nick.

"Hey!" she yelled as she grabbed its shoulders and pulled it down, going down with it. The walker grabbed her hair and started pulling her head towards its mouth. She tried stabbing it in the head, but with the awkward angle her face was tilted, she couldn't look up to aim correctly and ended up stabbing it in the cheek. She could feel the walker's cold breath on her ear as she struggled to push herself off against the walker's chest. Suddenly the walker's pull stopped and she pulled herself off the thing to reveal Nick's knife lodged in its skull. They both stared at each other, panting.

"You okay?" he asked her.

She nodded, "Yeah. Thanks." She looked around and found all of the walkers dead on the ground. Luke pulled out his machete from one's head.

"Alright let's go," he said. The bridge had wooden planks going across the middle that looked like they were rotting. The three decided instead to walk slowly along the metal edge which was slippery as hell. Gemma didn't want to admit it, but she was deathly afraid of heights and the lack of railings to hold on to made her even more anxious. She tried to just watch her feet as she carefully placed one in front of the other. She felt so unstable that even the wind could knock her off her feet.

"You're okay, Gemma," Nick encouraged after he noticed her uneasiness, "once we get to the other side, you don't have to go back to with us to get the rest of the group."

"Uh-huh." She replied, not looking up.

"Shit," Luke mumbled. Gemma looked up to see three more walkers in the middle of the bridge.

"You stay here," she heard Nick say and he and Luke walked towards the walkers. She heard a crack in the planks as she saw Luke and a walker go through them.

"Luke!" she cried out.

"I'm, I'm alright, just stuck!" she heard his voice call out. Nick dodged a walker that was coming right at him, causing it to fall off the edge of the bridge and Nick to drop his knife. Gemma slowly walked forward. Nick darted his eyes around as the last walker flung its arms out towards him, searching for something to kill it with. Gemma noticed a sharp, rusted strip of metal on the ground and picked it up.

"Nick!" she shouted before tossing the weapon to him, which he then stabbed in the walker's brain. Nick stood and picked up a metal pipe nearby, handing it to Luke who used it to help himself back up.

"Okay," Luke said after a few breaths and looked to the other side of the bridge, "I don't see any more lurkers, so we should be good. I'll head back to tell the rest of the group. You two head up to that smaller house and see if there's any supplies that we could use inside."

"Be careful," warned Nick.

"I will be," Luke assured before turning back and heading towards the group.

"Okay, one foot at a time…" Gemma joked, slowly regaining speed. It was a little awkward between the two. Of course she thought Nick was handsome and had caught herself blushing around him more than she should. It was just a little crush, like something she would get in elementary school. The hardest thing for her to do was look at his eyes. They were such a unique icy blue, a color she had never seen before. She would end up just staring at them, studying the way the outer ring of darker blue contrasted with his lighter hues. He would always clear his throat or look away which would snap her back into reality. She wasn't going to think about that now. She had to focus on getting herself off that damn bridge alive. She wasn't paying attention when she stepped on a piece of ice with the side of her foot. The ice itself didn't cause her to lose her balance, but her unpreparedness for it did. Nick quickly grabbed onto her arm to hold her steady. He chuckled to himself.

"Whoa there, we don't want your death in the apocalypse to be at the hand of a piece of ice," he smirked. She gave him a playful glare but held onto his arm for support.

"Thanks jackass," she teased trying to hold back a grin.

"That's some pretty profound language for a girl you're age to be saying."

"I'm twenty two I can say whatever the hell I want!" she said imitating Nick's slight country drawl.

"I do not sound like that. At least I know how to pronounce ORange correctly. And hORror, fORest, not ARange, hARror, and fARest," he mocked back. Gemma rolled her eyes.

"Thank God!" she sighed as they stepped off the bridge. After a few seconds, she realized they hadn't separated their tangle of holding arms and dropped her own.

Nick took an awkward step back after dropping his arms and cleared his throat, "Alright, let's find out what's in that house."


	6. Heavy Footsteps

The two approached the small building, probably once used to sell fishing gear and bait since there was a small path leading to the river bank close by. Nick raised up his hand as if to say "hold on" while he put his ear up to the door, listening for any moans of the dead. Gemma checked the window and found the place looked almost completely empty.

"Looks like scavengers have already found this place," she thought out loud. Nick opened the door to reveal nothing more than an empty room with a small cot, a wooden chest, and a few scattered objects of no use.

"Damn, they wiped this place out clean empty," Nick observed, kicking aside some trash.

"Well, there could be something in this chest-thing," Gemma suggested as she went over to fiddle with the lock. "I'm surprised no one's tried to open it before. Hand me your knife."

"You've got your own," Nick protested.

"Mine's too thin, it'll snap in half if I try to put pressure on it." Nick handed her the knife as she placed hers on the ground. Suddenly they both heard muffled voices approaching the building. Gemma froze and shot a look at Nick who was looking around for somewhere for them to hide. It sounded like a lot of voices and he knew that the two of them, with only their knives and his handgun, would not be very intimidating.

"The closet!" he said as he ran to the door and squeezed himself and Gemma in before closing it behind them. Gemma was glad that there were no coats inside because they needed all the space they could get. She was pressed up against his chest and could hear his heart beating fast. He was scared and she was, too. Who knew who these people were and what they were capable of doing? Her breath caught in her throat when she heard the front door open. Heavy feet clunked on the wooden floor as the presumably man explored the small room.

"They said he would be here?" a familiar, gruff voice asked.

"Y-yes," came a timid, southern voice of a woman whose light footsteps trailed behind his.

"Well, where the hell is he?!" the man demanded, sounding irritated. Gemma's heart skipped a beat. _He couldn't be talking about the group? How else would he know we were in here? Who even is— Carver? _Gemma's hands gripped Nick's shirt as she thought about all the awful things this man has done to the people in her group. She felt Nicks arms go around her, pulling her closer and making her feel warm and safe. Nick could feel her hot breath on his chest and her heart racing, knowing that Gemma had figured out who the man was. He held his breath as he felt Carver's heavy footsteps get closer and closer to the closet.

He suddenly stopped and sighed, "He's not here and not worth any of my time. Let's just round up the rest of them and head on back home." The footsteps left the shop, closing the door behind them. Nick didn't dare open the closet door right away, afraid that Carver might change his mind and come back. The two could hear shouting from outside the shop and then…

A gunshot.

"No!" Nick whimpered. Gemma looked up at him and in the dim light could see his eyes, glossy with tears. He looked down at her when he felt her hand on the back of his neck as she pulled him into a hug. He was scared and didn't know why but he cried into her shoulder. All he could think about was that it was Luke, his best friend who he'd grown up with. Now everyone he cared about was gone and he was alone. He remembered the small figure he was holding and was comforted. He thought about the first night he had met Gemma. Although she was quiet, he could see this strength behind her eyes. Her eyes. They were this beautiful dark green at night, but when they hit the light they brightened and you could see all of the blue sprinkled throughout them. He thought she was stunning, but was sure she didn't feel the same for him. But, he knew at least she cared, she cared because she was holding him and letting him cry into her.

After a few minutes the two pulled away from each other. Gemma gave a small, reassuring smile to Nick, causing him to nod slowly in return. She slowly opened up the door, feeling the cold air rush into the stuffy closet and they could finally breathe. She looked out the window to see no one. She turned to Nick and shook her head, looking down. They were gone. The group was gone and she didn't know how the hell they were going to get them back. Her eyes wandered over to the chest, noticing something was missing.

"My knife," she said, looking up again at Nick, "It's gone. It was here, I left it on the ground."

"He must have taken it with him as an extra weapon," Nick suggested.

"No, no this is bad. He knew we were in here. Why didn't he open the closet?!" Gemma exclaimed worriedly.

"Wait, hold on, how would he have known we were here?" Nick asked.

"Because," she started, "that was his knife. I took his knife. I took it when I was running away and he was distracted by the walkers so that I could have something to defend myself with. It was in a lose holster hanging on his belt… why didn't he open the closet door?" she repeated, her eyes full of distress. Nick paced around the room a bit.

"He knew we were in there, but he wanted us to have to go back for them."

"Why?"

"Because, for whatever reason in his sick, fucking twisted mind he knew that it would break us. I don't feel good about this." They were quiet for a minute, both thinking to themselves.

"What do we do?" she finally asked, breaking the silence. Nick slid his back down against the wall until he was on the ground with his forearms resting on his knees. He looked at her in the eyes.

"We go get 'em back."


	7. As the Sun Sets

_How the hell are we going to get them back? We have barley any food or weapons to defend ourselves with. Not to mention the appropriate clothing for the weather we're going to have to endure. Goddamn it. There's no way I'm going to be able to convince Nick otherwise. _All these thoughts rushed across Gemma's mind as she leaned up against the front door. Her stomach growled and she knew the two needed to find food before the sunset or else she was going to have a sleepless night. She walked over to the chest again and managed to break open the lock with Nick's knife. Nick shifted his gaze towards her when he heard the lid of the chest creak open. He saw Gemma's face light up and knew something good had to be in there. He stood up and walked over.

Gemma grinned as she pulled two cans of peaches out, "Awesome! Peaches!" She tossed one to Nick, who spun it around to read the label. Gemma cut a slit in the can and began drinking the sugary juice. She wiped her mouth on her shirtsleeve before walking over to Nick and cutting open his can. He took a sip and grinned. The two were dehydrated no doubt, and even though it wasn't water, it was close enough.

"I fucking hated peaches when I was a kid," Nick said and he used the knife to cut open the rest of the can. Gemma giggled as she watched him put a whole peach slice in his mouth. She then did the same after opening up her whole can. One slice after another, the two stuffed their faces with the sugary treat. They made eye contact and began laughing at how ridiculous they looked.

The sun was beginning to set, already filling the sky with orange and pink. Gemma abruptly set down her can and took Nick's arm.

"Let's go watch the sunset!" she exclaimed, pulling him towards the door.

"What? No, I'm not finished yet," Nick objected, trying to restrain from her pull. _Damn, she's stronger than she looks. _

"C'mon, we can finish them later. When else will we have such a beautiful view of the sunset?" Gemma pleaded.

"Um, always. We're always outside."

"Yeah, but it's always covered by the trees. We should go down to the bridge and watch it set over the river!"

Nick finally let in and allowed the blond haired girl guide him out the door. He was surprised to see how eager Gemma was with seeing this damn sunset. She's never really shown such a playful side to herself before; he thought it was nice. When they reached the bridge, Gemma hesitated. Nick began walking on the bridge and turned around when he noticed she wasn't following him.

"No, c'mon, don't tell me you dragged me down here just so that you could chicken out," he teased. Gemma took a deep breath before casually walking onto the bridge.

"It's just a bridge," she said confidently.

"Okaay," Nick exaggerated and began to turn around when he something stopped him. He quickly grabbed Gemma's hand before he started walking to the center of the bridge. Gemma blushed but luckily Nick was turned the other way so he didn't notice. The pair turned to look out on the water once they had gotten to the middle of the bridge. Gemma expected Nick to drop her hand, but he didn't. She wasn't sure if he had even noticed that he was still holding onto hers.

"Aren't the colors beautiful?" Gemma asked after staring off at them for a bit.

"Yeah, I guess," Nick said, "I'm not much of a romantic."

"Say's the guy who's still holding onto my hand," Gemma smirked. Nick glanced down at their hands and quickly let go.

"S-sorry." He felt a bit awkward until he felt a soft hand loop back into his. He looked down at Gemma who was staring off at the warm colors around the sun.

"Isn't it amazing how beautiful this world is? Even though it's gone to shit, there are still some things that can just strike you with their beauty," she thought out loud. Nick hadn't really ever thought about it before. He looked around at the mountains surrounding them. She was right, this hell was surprisingly stunning. The two stood there in silence until the sun had almost set completely behind the waterline. Gemma turned towards Nick and pecked him on the cheek, whispering "Thanks."

The next morning Nick woke up and noticed Gemma lying next to him with her head resting on his chest and his own arms wrapped around her. He didn't remember falling asleep this way, but they must have cuddled throughout the night to keep themselves warm. He thought about last night on the bridge. Surely it was just a friendly peck to say her thanks and she didn't mean anything behind it. He felt her adjust her head slightly on him and a few seconds later she shot up uncomfortably and looked over at him. "Uh," he managed to get out. They were both blushing. Gemma quickly changed the subject.

"Good morning," she said groggily. She had no idea why she had woken up on Nick since she certainly hadn't fallen asleep like that. Nick sat up and yawned.

"We should get a move on," he suggested. Gemma nodded and stood up. She grabbed a backpack she had found in the trunk along with the rest of the cans of peaches and a small first aid kit. She didn't know why someone had put these things in there but she was glad they did. She just hoped it wasn't someone who was going to come back for them.

She turned around and smirked as she saw Nick stand up and rub his eyes. _Still looks like a six year old._

"You ready?" he asked. Gemma nodded. "Let's go."

Gemma slowly opened the door and heard an all too familiar sound. She looked to her right and saw a walker stumbling out of the woods and towards the shop, unaware of her presence. She looked back at Nick and mumbled, "Walker."

"Lurker," he responded.

She rolled her eyes as she opened up the door wider and stepped out. The walker now noticed the two and began moving towards them with his arms clawing the air. Nick went to stab the thing but stopped.

"Nick what are you—" she stopped when she saw who the walker was.

Alvin.

Nick began shaking his head and didn't move as Alvin's corpse got closer to him.

"Nick!" Gemma yelled at him, trying to pull his shoulder. He wouldn't budge. She didn't want to, but she knew she had to do it. She took the knife out of Nick's hand and stabbed Alvin, or who he once was, in the skull. He dropped to the ground after Gemma pulled the knife back out. She turned around to look at Nick who wouldn't make eye contact with her.

"Nick we have to go," she persuaded to no avail. She had never seen him shut down like this before and it was scary. She comforted him the only way she knew and stood on her toes as she pulled him into a hug. At first he didn't react, but then wrapped his arms around her. He didn't cry, but he needed the embrace.

"That fucking asshole," he mumbled into her shoulder.

She ran her fingers through his long hair and hummed lightly.

After awhile, Nick lifted his head back up, but they were still wrapped in each other's arms. He looked at her and noticed how the waves in her hair rested nicely against the sides of her face. Her upper lip formed a perfect cupid's bow that complimented her thick, lower lip. He looked at her green eyes and the way the morning sun caught the blue in them. He couldn't help himself as he gently lifted her chin and brought their lips together.


	8. Snow on the Trees

It had been three days since they had kissed and things had become somewhat awkward between them. Gemma had been surprised by the act and pulled away, maybe a little sooner than she'd wanted to. She really cared for Nick, and if they were in any other situation she would have accepted the kiss. However, it was different. Nick was obviously emotionally shaken from finding someone close to him, undoubtedly shot by Carver, stumbling towards him as a walker. She didn't want to continue on thinking Nick had some sort of feelings for her when she knew he just did it for comfort. The look in his eyes when she pulled away killed her inside. She didn't mean to hurt him, but didn't want to hurt herself. Ever since, things hadn't been the same. She couldn't stop thinking about it; she just kept replaying it over and over in her head. Everything about the kiss, her closeness to him just felt so right. Gemma forced herself to stop thinking about it and focus on the most important issue right now: getting back the group. She sighed as shifted her glance from the ground to what was ahead of them.

"What?" Nick asked.

"Just… thinking about the group," she lied.

"Me, too."

Silence.

Again.

_God this is awful._ Gemma thought to herself. She sucked in some air and was about to turn around and tell him how she really felt when she heard faint moans. She and Nick instantly looked to the right, but could hardly see anything because of the thick foliage.

"Sounds like a lot more than we could handle," Nick said. Almost any amount of walkers were more than they could handle. The only weapons they currently owned were Nick's knife, gun, and a makeshift spear Gemma made that she was sure couldn't even go through a walker's skull.

"We should go," Nick added.

"Where?" Gemma asked as she scanned the forest. The only thing she could think of was to find a climbable tree. Light snow began to fall as she and searched for a thick tree with low branches.

"Where are you going?" Nick called after she began running towards an appropriate tree.

"Up," she stated as she started to climb.

"No, what the hell are you doing?!" he complained.

"What other options do we have?" she asked, looking down. "Now get up!"

Nick looked back towards where they once were. Walkers had already begun to emerge from around the trees and shrubs. He grabbed the first heavy branch and lifted himself onto it, following the girl. After she was sure they were far enough from the ground that the walkers wouldn't catch their smell, she stopped and sat down on a branch. Nick did, too, with the branch below hers. They watched with hearts racing as the walkers began to swarm the bottom of the tree they were on, luckily not suspecting anything. The amount never seemed to stop; it was a herd.

"Shit," Nick mumbled quietly so that the dead couldn't hear. "They're heading towards Carver's." He looked up at Gemma.

"Well, now what do we do?" she asked, "We can't follow them."

Nick robbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger. Snow had already begun to pile up on the branches. It was freezing. While the needles of the pine tree did protect them from some of the snow, they certainly weren't a roof. It was freezing. They knew they couldn't stay up in the tree for the night, it was too damn cold. They needed to build a fire, if they could even find any dry wood. Who knew how long it would take before this herd let up?

The two held themselves tight as the precipitation fell around them. Nick looked up again at Gemma whose quivering breath was visible.

"W-We have to use each other's body heat," he stuttered. Gemma nodded and looked down at the branch he was sitting on.

"Do you think it c-can hold both of us?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Gemma slowly turned her body so that her arms gripped her branch while her feet felt around for Nick's branch. He touched her legs and guided her feet flat on the branch. The snow made it slippery, but she was able to make her way down to him.

"Fuck its cold," she breathed.

He sat with his back leaning up against the trunk with his legs dangling off both sides of the branch. She shuffled her way next to him and laid herself on his chest with her knees up towards her stomach as they wrapped their arms around each other. Their body heat helped but it wouldn't last them long.

It had been almost the longest half hour Gemma had ever endured but the moans from below hadn't seemed to thin out. They were going to die here. They were going to freeze to death or starve from hunger and fall out of the tree just to be devoured by those _things_ who she couldn't even call people anymore. Gemma began to cry softly into Nick's shirt.

"G-Gemma, s-stop. Stop crying. We're gonna be f-fine. I promis-se," Nick encouraged. The sun was beginning to set but the clouds from above we're still snowing.

"N-Nick. We're gonna die h-here. And-and when we fall, they're gonna t-tear us apart," she said just above a whisper. "B-but I'm so numb, I won't feel thing. I'll j-just watch," she sobbed. She could feel hot tears rolling down her face and soaking into his shirt. Nick didn't know what to say. He knew they could make it, but he didn't know how much longer his body could take it.

"Y-you know, they s-say that freezing to death is the b-best way to go," he joked. She laughed faintly into his chest. "Don't give up, Gemma. You h-hear me?" he begged. "It won't be much longer unti-til they're gone."

The sun was below the horizon but some warm colors still remained in the sky. They both hadn't noticed that the moans from the walkers were gone and shivered quietly. Gemma noticed how quiet it was and quickly put two and two together.

"Nick!" she exclaimed.

He must have fallen asleep. She pushed herself up from his chest and looked at him. His lips were beginning to turn blue and his hat was piled with snow.

"Nick!" she shouted again as she shook him awake. He opened his eyes.

"What?"

"They're g-gone!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!" she grinned. They both peered over the branch towards the ground. It was dark, but they couldn't see any moving bodies.

"Let's get the fuck outta here," he laughed.

Slowly but surely, they made their way out of the tree with their cold bodies. Nick almost slipped off the last branch but caught himself in time.

"You okay there cowboy?" Gemma teased.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Yeah."

They huddled together as they walked to the right of where the herd had gone, hoping the shortcut they took would beat them to getting to Carver's. The snow had begun to lighten up, but there was a good three and a half inches on the ground. There was no useable firewood to be seen. They had no other choice but to continue walking in hopes of finding a cabin or building to spend the night. They we're both starving but neither wanted to risk the amount of heat they had built up between them to escape while one of them opened the backpack. They had one can of peaches left.

"Look," Nick said nodding his head towards whatever was in front of them. Gemma squinted her eyes to see what looked like… a cabin! They had really found a cabin!

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. They almost ran to the cabin with a sudden burst of energy. Nick knocked on the door to draw out any walkers that might be inside and quickly heard one moaning and scratching at the other side of the door. He motioned for Gemma to step back as he opened the door and quickly put his knife through the corpse's head. You could see her ribs sticking out from under her rotting skin. Gemma assumed she had been in there since the beginning of this thing and had been slowly starving without anyone to feed on. Who knows, maybe there would still be things in the cabin that could be useful. Nick pulled the skinny corpse out onto the porch before stepping into the home. Gemma followed behind.

The house looked really intact compared to what they were used to seeing. It was cozy with a soft looking couch and a fireplace. A small kitchen was off to the side along with a bathroom. There was only one bedroom but Gemma didn't care. She wouldn't mind sleeping on the couch since she was so used to sleeping on the damn ground. It was cold in the house but dry.

Nick grinned as he sat down on the couch, took off his hat, and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. Gemma sat down next to him and laid her head on the back cushion. She began giggling. He looked at her with an eyebrow raised but couldn't help but chuckle along with her.

"We almost died," she laughed. He put his palms up to his eyes and rubbed them.

"Yeah," he said after he brought them back to his lap again.

"Thanks, Nick," Gemma said after a small silence. He looked at her again.

"Why?" he asked with a grin.

His smile was so perfect and with his messy hat hair he looked younger. Gemma turned onto her back and looked up at the ceiling.

"For not giving up… not giving up on me," she explained quietly.

She turned her head to look back at him. His icy blue eyes were looking at her.

"I would never give up on you," he said.

She sat up again and didn't realize how close she was to him. She moved herself closer, and melted as their lips met once again. His were cold but slowly warmed up as they mingled with hers. She felt his hand lightly cup her face as the kiss deepened. It was as magical as the first time and she didn't want it to end...


	9. We Go Together

Gemma woke up the next morning snuggling with Nick in bed. He had his arm wrapped around her waist and his head resting next to hers. They hadn't slept together, but the night was still unforgettable to her; Nick was Gemma's first kiss. He was still sleeping soundly next to her as she slipped out from underneath his arm and left the room to explore the cabin.

She hadn't noticed last night because of the lack of light that there was wood stacked up next to the fireplace. Most of the logs had begun to rot, but there was still some that could be used to warm up the house. Next she went to the kitchen and found a loaded gun on the floor next to a splattered blood stain that continued up the wall.

_The best way to go._ Gemma thought as she imagined the dead walker on the porch performing the act. She looked through the cabinets and found a pretty good supply of expired cans of soup and tomato sauce. She looked through the drawers just to find some silverware and…

Gummy worms?!

Gemma picked up the bag and squished it to make sure it wasn't empty. She ran into the bedroom and jumped on top of Nick.

"Nick wake up!" she exclaimed as she shook his arm.

"Ugh… what?" he said sluggishly as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"I found gummy worms!"

He quickly rolled on his back and looked up her. "Are you joking?!"

"No!" she said as she dropped the bag on his face. He picked it up and examined it the same as she did. He sat up and looked at her, almost asking if he should open it now. She happily nodded and he ripped open the bag and took two out, giving one to her. They clinked the candy as if it were champagne before chewing the delicious, rubbery texture. They quickly finished the bag.

"Best breakfast I've had in a while," Nick said with a smile. He crumpled up the bag and threw it at her.

She smiled back at him, "I also found wood to build a fire with and a loaded gun. This place is perfect! We should just live here forever!"

Nick's smiled dropped a bit as he looked at the blankets. "We can't slow down. Who knows what Carver has already done to them? We would have already been there by now if those damn lurkers hadn't slowed us down," he said quietly.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. We've been going as fast as we can. I'm sure they'll be relieved to see us no matter if it takes us until tomorrow or a week to get them back."

Nick looked back up at her concerned eyes. "If we leave now we can make it by sundown. We should get going," he said as he got up from the bed and put his hat on.

They walked side by side through the forest. Nick was a good eight inches taller than the girl. He often teased her for her shortness. "I'm not short, I'm average height. 5'4 is the average height for women!" she would always complain. He chuckled at the thought.

"What you chucklin' 'bout?" Gemma mocked in a dramatic southern voice.

Nick rolled his eyes, "I don't sound like that. I barely even sound anything like Luke, let alone a hillbilly!" Gemma laughed.

"I'm just teasin' ya," she assured as she punched him lightly on the shoulder. Nick grabbed her new gun out of her back pocket and held it over her head. She tried to jump but could, obviously, not come very close to it.

"Oh ha-ha, very funny," she said sarcastically with her hands on her hips.

Nick smirked, "Yeah, so don't make fun of my voice." He handed her gun back to her.

"Douchebag," she mumbled under her breath.

Nick shoved her with his shoulder, causing Gemma to stumble sideways a few steps. She leaned over and made a snowball in her hands. The snow stung and began to melt in her hands. She attempted to throw it at him but hadn't packed it tightly enough so it just crumbled midair.

"Lame," Nick teased. "This is how it's really done," he explained as he bent over and packed together a giant snowball.

"No!" Gemma screamed as she ran away with Nick close behind.

As she passed by a tree, a walker jumped out at her and knocked her to the ground.

"Gemma!" Nick shouted as he dropped the snowball and quickened his pace. She struggled to get the dead thing's snapping teeth away from her face.

Just then another appeared from behind some nearby bushes and came her way. Nick grabbed the enormous walker that looked to be a good four inches taller than him. They fell to the ground together as Nick stabbed the walker's eye. Gemma managed to push the other walker off of her as she noticed three more close by. _Did we attract some from the herd?_ She thought. Nick stomped the walker's head in.

"Let's go!" he said as he grabbed Gemma's arm and pulled her up.

They ran and saw even more walkers appearing from out everywhere. Nick stabbed the ones that got too close and Gemma had her gun at the ready.

"Where the hell are they coming from? We made sure we weren't that close to the herd!" Gemma wondered aloud.

"You think there's another one close by?" Nick panted as they ran.

Suddenly, one laying on the ground without legs grabbed his ankle. Gemma quickly shot it, but Nick looked like he'd hurt something. "God damn, I think I twisted my ankle," he said in pain.

"Lean on me."

Nick wrapped an arm around Gemma's shoulders and they began walking quickly. Luckily the walkers seemed to be thinning out, but that gunshot attracted any that were nearby.

"Stay here," Gemma told Nick as she took his knife out and walked up to any close by walkers, stabbing their skulls. When the few walkers that remained were killed, she went back to Nick.

"You think you can make it?" she asked, looking at his icy blue eyes.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good," he responded. He pulled her close to him and kissed the top of her forehead. "Thanks."

She blushed as she wrapped his arm around her again and they continued to walk.

Nick was right, by the time the sun began to set they could see the sign to _Howe's Hardware_. Gemma gulped, thinking about the stories she had heard about the place. They knelt down behind a rock at the edge of the parking lot. There were guards that were visible on the roofs of the buildings.

"Now what's the plan?" she asked.

"Okay, do you see those fences that they're building over there?" he asked, pointing to the right where a pile of zombies began pounding on the glass of a smaller store attached to the hardware store.

"Yeah."

"To the left of the lurkers is a dumpster. When the guards are switching out parole times, I'll sneak over there and use the dumpster to hop over the fence."

"What about me?" Gemma asked, making Nick look back at her.

He was quiet for a moment as he looked at the ground. "I don't want you going in there. It's not safe… I've already lost too many people that I care about… I'm not going to lose you, too."

Gemma pushed his chin up so that he would look at her. "No, I'm going with you, Nick. I don't care about whatever's in there. I'm safest when I'm with you," her voice cracked as she held back tears.

How could he not want her to go with him? He was all she had now and she wasn't going to risk losing him because of some stupid asshole who thought he controlled everything. Nick saw the pain in her eyes and hoped he wouldn't regret this decision.

"Okay, then we go together."


	10. Just Forget the World

Once the sun had set completely, the pair silently made their way across the huge parking lot. They had to stop every so often behind a car so that Nick could rest his swollen ankle.

"Maybe I should go alone," Gemma mumbled.

"What, no, no way am I going to let you go alone. I'm fine, I can make it," Nick objected, wincing from the pain.

"Nick! You can barely sit without your ankle killing you! How the hell are you going to jump over that fence?" she asked, her eyes huge with concern.

Nick thought about it for a moment, "Well, where the hell am I supposed to go anyway? I can't exactly just stay here. That herd's coming this way and we'll be screwed if we don't hurry our asses up—"

"Shit!" Gemma cut him off. A walker from the group that was banging on the one store's windows had noticed their argument and had made its way over to the car. Luckily, it hadn't seemed to have brought the attention of the others with it. Gemma stood up from her crouched positon while holding Nick's knife in her right the walker got close enough, she kicked its knees in, causing it to fall. When it was on the ground, she didn't hesitate to stab the walker's skull.

Gemma didn't feel like arguing with Nick about it, "Let's go."

He was surprised by her decision. She was usually very stubborn and anyone arguing with her wouldn't get a word in edgewise. He used the car to help himself up from the ground. Gemma offered her shoulder to him and they made their way to the fence.

After practically pulling Nick up on top of the dumpster, Gemma looked at Nick as if to ask "Are you sure?" He nodded his head. Nick placed his hands on top of the fence and pulled himself up a bit to peer over to the other side. He turned back around and whispered, "It looks clear. There's no one patrolling on the roofs of these stores. I think we'll be okay." Gemma nodded as she walked over to him. Nick helped boost her up to the top of the fence, where she climbed over. It was a pretty far fall. She knew she would be fine, but all she could think about was Nick landing on his bad ankle and injuring it even more.

Gemma looked back at him before dropping, "I got you on the other side," she said. Nick smiled slightly as he watched her turn back again and drop. He barely even heard a thud. He looked to the right of him to see if any lurkers had noticed, which they hadn't.

_Damn, there must be something good inside that store, _he thought to himself. Gemma looked around and made sure the coast was clear. She looked up to see Nick haul himself over the fence. She quietly motioned for him to come down. To make less of an impact, he held on to the fence while his legs dangled for a bit before letting go. He only had a few feet to fall, but he still grunted in pain when he landed. Gemma quickly rushed over to him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he quietly assured her.

"Where to now?" She asked as she allowed him to lean on her once more.

"In that comic book shop," he directed, pointing to a store straight ahead of them.

The store had obviously been cleared out by Carver's group, but the blood smears all over the ground and the moonlight shining through the windows gave it an eerie feel. Nick sat himself down on a cardboard box.

"This place gives me the creeps," Gemma said as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"Yeah, it is a bit creepy," Nick admitted. Then again, the feeling could have just been because he was back at the hell hole he thought he would never return to.

Gemma began walking around the store in hopes to find anything that they could sleep comfortably on. She sighed in relief when she found a small cot in the corner. It was thin and made only for one person, but it was better than nothing. She walked back to Nick to see him rummaging through a box next to him. He pulled out two sweatshirts; one with the DC logo on it, the other with Marvel. They were both the same size, so Nick held out both towards her.

"Well, I've always had a thing for Batman," Gemma joked as she took the DC sweatshirt and put it on. It was big on her, but it was soft and warm. Nick pulled the Marvel sweatshirt over his head.

"Fits me fine," he joked as he looked at her sweatshirt, the sleeves almost completely covering her hands.

Gemma rolled her eyes, "Found a cot we can sleep on."

"Sweet," Nick responded, imitating a surfer dude.

"You're such a loser," she laughed as she helped him over towards the cot.

"Yeah, but that's why you love me," he joked. They both tensed up at what he said and blushed slightly.

"I, I didn't mean it like tha—" Nick stuttered, but was interrupted by Gemma giving him a peck on the cheek.

"You're cute when you're embarrassed," she said softly. Nick smiled as they laid down on the cot and faced each other.

Gemma began playing with the strings on his sweatshirt as Nick played with her hair, twirling the waves around his fingers. She nestled herself further into his chest and could feel his heartbeat match up with her own. They were both content. It was ironic how in such bad of times, the moment was so perfect. Nick began to hum a song that she recognized. Gemma closed her eyes and sang along the chorus with him in her head.

"If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told

Before we get too old

Show me a garden that's bursting into life.

All that I am

All that I ever was

Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see."

**A/N** Hey guys! I know I should be doing more author's notes, but I keep forgetting to! I really appreciate all of the feedback this fanfic has been getting and I hope you all still enjoy reading it. I'll try to post at least every other day, since the chapters are pretty short. Let me know if you want me to add more cute moments between Gemma and Nick or if you'd rather I get on with the story. Thank you! ~WalkingDeadCrazy

Song: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol


	11. We Found Him

Gemma woke up the next morning to Nick stroking her hair. She didn't remember where she was, but it didn't matter because he was here with her. For a second she was in a dream and away from this disaster the world has come to. But it was only a split second, and she soon took in her surroundings and remembered their mission. How they were going to pull this off, she had no idea. The sun was slowly peeking through sloppily boarded up windows. Gemma rolled onto her back and yawned. Her back was sore from the cramp sleeping conditions, but her sleep that night had been peaceful. They were both quiet, Gemma looking at the sun peeking through the windows, Nick looking at the way the sunlight lit up her eyes.

They both snapped out of their day-dreamy morning when they heard harsh voices from outside the store. Gemma quickly stood while Nick took his time to stand up, trying not to put pressure on his ankle. As they heard the voices pass, they knew they had recognized one: Luke. Gemma looked back at Nick to see if he had made the connection as well. He had a huge grin on his face; his best friend was alive! Whoever Luke was with had a radio on them, as the blaring voices from the other end gave it away.

"That's it!" Nick quietly exclaimed. "The radios, all we need is one of them. If we could get ahold of Luke, we could ask him to get a radio for us and for him so that we could communicate with the group and figure out a plan."

"Yeah, but how the hell do we talk to Luke?" Gemma asked.

"It sounded like they were heading towards the shop that the lurkers were trying to get into. They're probably having him board up the windows so that they can't get in. When he walks back at the end of his shift, we could grab him and bring him in here to talk to him," Nick explained.

"Wait, Carver has you guys work in _shifts_? What the hell?"

"Yeah, tell me about it. We're all his little "worker bees" and he's the Queen Bitch," Nick rolled his eyes. Gemma couldn't help but laugh at how frank he was.

The pair walked over to the windows and peered out. It looked like there were no guards in sight, but there could be some on the roof above them. They couldn't sneak out to find Luke, it would be too risky. It looked like they would have to wait until he came to them.

"I guess being cooped up in a comic book store isn't too bad," Gemma thought out loud as she went through a box and pulled out a stack of comics which she and Nick flipped through to pass the time. It was so strange to be reading again, it was almost _difficult_. It was like she had to read every other word over a few times to remember what it meant. They sat and ate their last can of peaches together and talked about the past and what they thought the future would be like. It was nice to just sit and talk to each other, to have genuine conversations.

The position of the sun in the sky looked to be mid-day when they finally heard a pair of feet walking on the cement sidewalk outside of the door. Gemma slowly opened the door to find Luke carrying a tool box. He hadn't noticed her, so she had to walk up from behind him and pull him into the comic book store.

"What the—" Luke began before a hand was placed over his mouth to muffle out his shout. After the door closed behind him, he turned around to find Gemma with eyes glistening with tears before she jammed into his stomach for a hug.

"Gemma?" he asked in disbelief. She mumbled something into his chest that he couldn't make out.

"Luke!"

He shot his head to the left to find Nick walking towards him with a limp. Gemma quickly let go as the best friends embraced each other. She could have sworn she saw light tears in their eyes.

"What the hell are you guys doin' here? How did you even get here?" Luke asked, his eyes darting back and forth between the two of them. Gemma grinned as Nick quickly explained what happened to them. As she listened, she couldn't believe it herself that they had made it here as fast as they did.

"So, now, here's the plan," Nick said, looking back at Gemma for a split second before continuing, "We need you to get a set of radios for us. That way, we can have one and you and the group will have the other so that we can figure out a plan. I still remember all of the station details, so you don't have to worry about that. Do you think you could get ahold of them?"

Luke scratched the back of his head. "I don't know, man. That's gonna be pretty tricky. He keeps the set in the supply room at night so that they can charge up. Carver has us locked in the pen at night, so there's no way we could get to them," he explains.

"Well, what about that ladder on the wall of the pen? Someone could climb up it, onto the roof, and go through the skylight into the storage room," Nick suggested.

All of this information was buzzing around Gemma's head and she couldn't keep up with it. All she knew was that there was a storage room and a… _pen _where they kept her group.

"Carver had some guys break off the bottom of it so that we couldn't think about escaping again. We would need to boost someone small up there that was quick on their feet, someone who could get in and out of that storage room without being noticed. Who the hell in our group could do that?" Luke asked.

Nick began to open his mouth before Luke cut him off.

"And don't even think about suggestin' Sarah. We both know that Carlos would freak out at the idea."

"Well, what about me?" Gemma piped up.

Nick and Luke looked over at the young woman.

"It could work," Luke admitted.

"Hell no." Nick responded.

"Why not?" Gemma and Luke asked simultaneously.

"Because she…" Nick didn't want to reveal to Luke about their feelings for one another just yet, but he didn't want Gemma to get hurt. "She doesn't know around the place. And how is she supposed to make it back to the pen without anyone noticing her?" Nick asked.

"Goddammit…" Luke thought. "Well, come to think of it now, there is another girl whose in the pen named Jane, I think. She doesn't talk much, but she seems like she could do the job. I could ask... Oh, shit, I should get back. I've already been here too long. I'll try to get the radios to you tomorrow."

"We'll be here," Nick joked as Luke left.

"Looks like we've finally got a plan." Gemma said with a grin.

"Yeah we do," Nick chuckled as he pulled her into a hug.


	12. Those Who Are Lost

They we're both asleep when the doors came crashing open, revealing a man around his mid-twenties.

"Where the fuck are you, Nick?!" he snarled as he stormed around the aisles.

Gemma looked to Nick, but they both knew they wouldn't have time to hide, or anywhere to hide for that matter. Gemma stood up in defense mode anyway, holding her gun out to that man who they could hear coming their way.

"Ahh, Nick there you are. Oh, and looks like you brought a lady friend," the man smirked and took a few steps closer to Gemma. "Wow, Nick, she's cuter than I thought you could bang. Now, look," he hesitated, motioning for her to give her name. Gemma was silent as she glared at the man, still holding onto her gun. "…lady-chick," he decided to call her, "There's no use in putting up a fight, 'cause I got a whole bunch o' men just outside that door that could teach you a thing or two about respect," he said as he took two steps closer.

Nick stood up, revealing to be much taller than the guy. "Don't you touch her," he growled, taking a step closer to the man.

"Still wearing that stupid hat, are we, Nick?" he asked and then looked over to Gemma. "Well, it's polite to introduce yourself, lady-chick, I'm Troy—" he was cut off when Nick punched him in the face and fell straight down.

Gemma looked at Nick, her eyes wide, but still holding her gun towards the man. They didn't notice when Troy grabbed his radio and called for help.

"Shit," Nick breathed. True to Troy's words, three guys came rushing into the store, one of them laughing when they saw Troy on the ground. Gemma turned her aim from Troy to them, but soon was forced to put her gun down as the three of them all aimed theirs at her. One smiled as he grabbed her arm and pulled her away from Nick's protective hold. The other two took Nick and put his arms behind his back, zip-tying them together. The man holding onto Gemma did the same to her, and the pair was roughly rushed out of the room and into the huge hardware store.

Nick tried to hold back his pain while walking on his left foot, but it was obvious to the guards that something was wrong. They teased him about it and even kicked him in the leg. Nick didn't say anything, but just looked straight ahead, biting his lower lip. Gemma knew that this place was messed up if Nick didn't turn around and rip a new one to them.

They were quickly rushed into a courtyard, it looked like, with enormous garage doors closing behind them. There they were, the group that had gone missing about a week ago. "Nick! Gemma!" They all gasped one by one. None of them rushed over to the pair. Gemma wondered why until she saw the man who was approaching them: Carver.

He was uglier and more menacing than she remembered. His breath smelled like alcohol as his husky voice growled at them.

"Oh, well, well, well. What have my men brought me here?" he asked sarcastically. "An ignorant asshole who thought he could outsmart me by hiding in a _closet_?" he asked as he walked up to Nick and punched him in the stomach.

Nick grunted in pain as his head fell forward, not looking Carver in the eye. Gemma's heart was racing and she could feel it thudding in her ears. She was more afraid than she had ever been before in this apocalypse, and it was because of a _human_ _being_ and not because of the dead that roamed around, eating each other alive.

"And this pretty young lady, who I recognize as a thief," he said as he pulled out the knife Gemma had stolen from him and placed it under her chin. "How's that scar holding up for ya?" he asked, referring to the slash he had made on her shoulder. He pulled up her sweatshirt to look at it. "Not bad… maybe you could use another to humble yourself up?" he suggested as he then moved the knife from her throat and slashed another wound into her shoulder, making an 'x'. Gemma winced in pain and tears flooded her eyes.

"Oh, don't worry, (…Gemma was it?) We have a doctor here," he said motioning to Carlos, who looked at the pair with pain in his eyes. "Though, I doubt he'll be able to heal you both up completely, after what I'll be doing to you." Carver turned around and faced everyone else in the group.

"You see, kids, those who are lost always return home. However, that doesn't mean that "Daddy"," he said, referring to himself, "will accept them with open arms. You have to be punished for your mistakes, that way you learn from them and never do them again."

He paced back and forth. "I hope this will teach you all a valuable lesson: To never astray from home." He turned around as he heard the garage door open again.

Troy shoved Luke into the room, who turned white when he saw his friends in the arms of the guards.

"Ah, Luke, you've come in time to enjoy the party," Carver joked as Luke stood with the rest of the group.

"Actually, everyone, you can thank Luke for this party. He's the one who revealed that these two were in the building, trying to sneak you all out again," Carver snickered as Gemma and Nick looked up at Luke, who looked like he was going to say something, but closed his mouth.

"Well, he didn't ruin the surprise for us, specifically. But, obviously, your group was planning something when a guard noticed them all huddled around that ladder over there last night. Then, this morning, we noticed two radios were missing from their charging station," be began to laugh and turned around to face Nick and Gemma.

"Did you guys s_eriously _think that we wouldn't have noticed that two radios were missing?" His face snapped from amusement to anger as he walked over to Nick and punched him in the face. "Obviously not," he finished.

"Kevin," Carver growled as the head of the man holding onto Gemma snapped his way. "Take her to my office, I want to spend some time… questioning her," he ordered.

"No, you asshole!" Nick spat out. The guard named Kevin tried to pull Gemma with him, but she put up a struggle.

"Let go of me!" she shouted, trying to kick him in the process.

Nick looked over at Gemma and their eyes made contact for a split second before Carver grabbed his face and punched him straight in the nose.

"NO!" Gemma cried as the guard holding her picked her up and swung her over his shoulder.

"NICK!" she sobbed as she watched Carver repeatedly punch and kick him until he fell to his knees.

She stared through blurry, tear covered eyes until the garage door closed and she could no longer see the man who she loved.


	13. Together Again

The rom she was in was dark without the lights on. Some light came through the large windows that looked out into the hardware store. Gemma was tied in a chair with a zip-tie around each of her wrists and the chair's arms. She had been there for a good hour. She could only imagine what Carver was doing to Nick. There was no way he was still beating him, it had been just too damn long.

She struggled to get out of the zip-ties, biting them with no avail. Tears were streaming down her face; she didn't know she could cry so much. Sitting back in the chair hurt like hell because of the wound on her shoulder, so she leaned forward. She blamed herself for what was happening to Nick. _I shouldn't have let him come with me, should have just left him in a car or something. What was I thinking? He couldn't even walk by himself!_

The room was hot, stuffy, and her head was throbbing. She was dehydrated and the crying didn't help. Her mind wouldn't, _couldn't _think straight. Everything that had happened to her for the past few weeks seemed like a blur. She barely noticed the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the door.

Her eyes were still closed when Carver entered the room and flicked on the bright lights. This only made her headache worse. She felt nauseous. Carver didn't say a word and he walked up to her and violently pushed her chin up to look at him, but she wouldn't. She kept her eyes closed, thinking that would keep her safe.

He slapped her, "Look at me." She slowly opened her eyes into a glare.

"Looks like you're little boyfriend will need a long time's recovery," he said gruffly.

"What did you do to him?" she asked flatly, not letting her glare go. She knew she had no power compared to him, but she was determined for her eyes to burn into his skin.

"Exactly what I'm going to do to you."

With that he brought his face down to hers and gave her a small peck on the corner of her mouth. She recoiled as far away from him as she could. He smiled as he leaned back up and punched her in the face.

"You're nothing but a lousy bitch. This'll teach you for stealing," he said as he punched her again. She could feel a stream of blood trickle down her face from her eyebrow. She held her glare but remained quiet. He continued to beat her until suddenly he stopped and lifted up her sweatshirt and layers underneath until he found her bare skin. He rubbed his hands along her side and crouched down and began kissing her skin. She was tempted to kick him in the face but knew that it would only buy her more time in this awful room with this awful man. He stopped and looked up at her.

"This is only a warning, since you boyfriend made a deal with me. The more I beat him, the less I beat you," he smirked. "You're both idiots for caring about other people in this apocalypse. There should only be one thing on your mind: survival."

He went to his desk and pulled out a pair of scissors. He clipped off the zip-ties and grabbed her arm, forcing her up. She could barely walk; she needed water.

He went down the stairs and out into the "pen". Everyone stood up when they saw them saw them walk in, but no one said anything. Gemma looked around for Nick but couldn't find him. Luke walked up to them.

"Here she is. Don't worry, I didn't rough her up too bad," Carver's gravelly voice reassured. "Where's Nick?" his voice rose. Luke led them over to where Carlos was tending Nick's bloody body.

He had two black eyes, cuts all over his face, and his ankle wrapped up in bandages. Gemma began to cry again as she saw his condition. She didn't even want to think of what his torso looked like.

"Oh, and Nick, this'll teach you to not fuck around with me again," Carver explained as he pulled up Gemma shirt to reveal the red hickeys around her waistline. Carver then shoved her into Nick, causing them both to wince in pain. Carver began to leave, but then went over to Rebecca to talk to her. Nick stared at Gemma's face. There was a red handprint on her right cheek along with dried blood under her nose and the cuts on her forehead and mouth. He knew he was in a much worse condition, but could only imagine what Carver did to her.

"Did he…" Nick looked over at Carlos, who continued to examine his wounds. He then looked back at Gemma and she looked down and shook her head. She pulled down her sweatshirt to hide what Carver had done. Nick grabbed her hand and looked at the cuts around her wrists from the zip-ties.

"He strapped you to a chair?" She nodded and he mouth trembled. All she wanted was to hug Nick, but knew that that would only hurt him more. She sat down on the table he was leaning up against and held his hand.

The garage door shut behind Carver as he walked out, leaving Rebecca crying into her hands.

"I'm gonna go check on her," Luke said quietly as he walked away.

"Now, you're turn," Carlos said to Gemma, "I'm first going to need you to take off your sweatshirt so that I can look at that wound on your shoulder."

Gemma nodded and did as told. Carlos gently cleaned the dried blood surrounding the cut.

"Looks like it won't need stitches, again, but I'll have to wrap it the same as before." This time, nobody joked about the way the bandage looked.

It was silent in the courtyard except for Rebecca's sobs into Luke's shoulder. Gemma noticed there were two other people who weren't apart of her group, each in their own corner. They would both look over to her and Nick every so often, but would quickly look away. _That must be the girl Luke was talking about, Jane._ Gemma thought to herself. Gemma shakily put her warm sweatshirt back on as Carlos cleaned up her face and bandaged her cuts to top the bleeding.

"Can I have some water?" she voice croaked. Nick gave her his and she drank the whole thing. The headache was still there, but her throat was no longer dry.

"Thanks," said after she put the empty water bottle on the table. She gave him a small smile which he returned. Gemma thanked Carlos after he finished examining her. It was barely mid-day, but she and Nick were tired, so they made their way over to the makeshift bunk beds.

Gemma laid down in one. She expected Nick to lay down in a bed adjacent to hers, but he slid onto the same mattress as her. He wrapped an arm around her and she snuggled into his chest.

"I missed you," he whispered. He could feel her tears soak through his sweatshirt.

"I won't leave you again," she replied. He kissed the top of her head. He didn't care that Luke was looking at them, surprised by their affection towards each other. They both fell asleep soundly in each other's arms, happy to be back together again.


	14. A New Idea

Nick heard the sounds of a crackling fire and soft voices when he woke up. It was dark out, probably around eight o'clock. He could hear Gemma's steady breathing and figured she was still asleep.

All he could think about was the look she gave him and then her screams as they took her away earlier that day. He wanted to protect her but couldn't and it killed him inside. Even now when she was in his arms he felt like he wasn't keeping her safe. He could have prevented her from all of this. The day he met her, he insisted she went with them when all she wanted was to be left alone. _I'm such an asshole_, he thought.

Luke noticed that Nick was awake and walked over to him, sitting on the bed next to his.

"Hey," he said quietly, trying not to wake up Gemma.

"Hey," Nick responded.

"How're you feelin'?"

"Like shit."

"Yeah…" Luke trailed off, not knowing how to ask what he really wanted to. "So, um, about you and Gemma… are you guys a thing… after a week?" he finally just asked.

"I guess… we haven't really talked about it," Nick admitted. He thought about it in his head. Had it only been a week? It felt like weeks ago since he had first kissed Gemma. "We've been through a lot… and it's been more than a week," he said after a short silence.

"Yeah, I guess so," Luke said while looking at both of their beaten faces.

Nick heard the uncertainty in Luke's voice. "Why?" he asked.

"I don' know, just wanted to find out, for the group."

"They group asked about us?"

"Yeah, yeah they did. Sarah and Rebecca think it's cute, but Carlos isn't so sure about it," Luke confessed. Carlos never took a real liking to Gemma and Nick had no idea why.

"What about you?" Nick asked, looking at Luke.

"I, I'm fine with it," he said a little forcedly. Nick looked at him like he knew he was lying. "Well, it's just it seems a little rushed, ya know?" Luke said.

"Whatever," Nick responded.

"Shit, man, I didn't mean to make you mad. Just wanted to give you an outside opinion." Nick didn't say anything as Luke stood up. "Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow," he said while awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

After he had walked away, Nick noticed Gemma breathing wasn't as steady as before and he knew she was awake. "Shit, sorry you had to hear that," Nick said softly.

Gemma looked up at him. "Was he right?" she asked, "I mean, what are we?"

He looked down at her. Her dark green eyes caught his attention and for a split second, he forgot about the situation. He needed that, he needed her. No matter how shitty the world had become, she would make him feel warm inside, like he was at home.

"I love you." He couldn't believe he had said that. The words just slipped out of his mouth. He was about to correct himself, when he heard her say it back. _I love you, too._ The way she said it played over and over in his mind.

She brought he face up to his and kissed him. It was long and different then their other kisses had been; there was adoration behind it. When their lips parted, her forehead gently rested on his. "I love you, Nick."

The next day, Gemma was working with a nice woman named Bonnie with a sweet southern accent. They were getting along pretty well and Bonnie would even let Gemma take it easy when she needed to. It was just them in a small supply closet filling magazines when Bonnie looked towards the door and dropped her voice low.

"Hey, so I know y'all are trying to get out," she started.

"Well, doesn't everyone? I mean, we tried, but it didn't work," Gemma said.

Bonnie looked at her in the eye. "I've got a plan that I _know _will work. I just need a few things from y'all," she said.

"What is it?" Gemma asked, curious.

"What I was thinkin' is that one of you could sneak out from the pen and use the ladder to get to the roof. Carver's office has a skylight over it, and said person could get in there while I distracted him and put a CD into the sound system in there. It's connected to all of the speakers both inside and outside the building. Since there's a big herd comin', the sound would send them this way, throwing all of the guards off. While they're all busy tryin' to shoot at the lurkers, y'all could sneak out of the storage room. And… I was hopin' that y'all would let me come with you," she finished.

Gemma thought about it. "I'll have to ask the group about it tonight. When were you thinking about pulling this off?"

Bonnie looked down, "Well, I was kinda thinkin' tonight would be the best night because the herd is predicted to be surrounding the whole building by tomorrow night. If we leave tonight, we'll have just enough time to make it out without there being too many lurkers."

"That doesn't leave us a lot of time," Gemma thought out loud.

"I was goin' to suggest it last night but I figured none of y'all were in the best condition to do so," she said quietly, adverting her eyes from Gemma.

"Stay by the garage door tonight, I'll let you know what the group thinks about it," Gemma said.

Once her shift was over, Gemma practically ran to the "pen". Luckily everyone was there already, so she could suggest the plan right away. Luke noticed the look on her face as she approached the fire were everyone was huddled around.

"What's up, Gemma?" he asked.

"Bonnie has a great plan for us to escape, but it has to be done tonight."

Once everyone understood her idea, the debate started. Luke was first.

"Wait a second, I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, look at Nick, do you think he's in any condition to just get up and move?" he argued.

"It's better than sitting here being controlled by that asshole all day," Nick mumbled. "I think we should do it," he said, looking up at Gemma who smiled at him.

"Carlos?" Luke asked, hoping his friend would side with him.

"Luke's right, Nick can't run on his foot. If he doesn't rest and let it heal, it will only get worse. But, at the same time, now might be our only chance."

"It is our only chance. We have to go now. There is no way I'm having my baby here, just so that Carver can snatch it up away from me," Rebecca sat up.

"I'll go with you," the girl named Jane said as she walked over from the corner.

"Hell, I will, too," the other unknown man said as he, too, approached the fire.

Gemma looked over at Luke. "Alright fine, but I don't feel good about this," he sighed.


	15. Into the Herd

After notifying Bonnie that the group decided to go with the plan, Gemma walked back over to the broken ladder. It was decided that she would be the one to sneak into Carver's office, since she had gotten a good look around the last time she was in it. She knew exactly where the sound system was and she thought she remembered seeing a few CDs next to it.

The unknown man, whom she now knew as Mike, helped boost her up onto the broken ladder, which she then climbed to the top. After finding the right skylight, Gemma peered through. She watched as Bonnie opened up the door and said something to Carver. He then stood up and walked out of the room. Once he was out of the door, Bonnie looked up through the skylight at Gemma, nodded her head, and closed the door behind her.

Gemma quietly lifted up the window and jumped down into the room. Memories of what occurred in that rom just the day before flooded her mind. She shook them off as she focused on the task.

After sliding a metal filing cabinet in front of the door to insure that no one could get in, Gemma walked over to the sound system. She looked at the shelf underneath and found a few CDs.

_Ah, what the hell?_ She said to herself as she took all but one and tucked them beneath her shirt and the waist of her pants. _Who knows, we might be in the mood for some music one day?_ She popped the other disc into the system and turned the volume all the way up.

It began playing cheesy shopping advertisements that Gemma had forgotten even existed. As she looked out the window in his office, she saw Bonnie lift up the gate to the "pen" and everyone rushed towards the storage room. She sighed in relief, knowing that this plan would actually work.

She climbed out of his office through the skylight once again and made her way over to the storage room's skylight, slipping herself in once she had found it. She heard the harsh, gravelly voice of none other than Carver. He was scolding the group for yet another "unsuccessful escape".

Gemma scooted her way along the large supply boxes until she was just above Carver. She looked at Nick, whose face was expressionless as he "listened" to Carver's speech about respect. Gemma jumped down, landing on the asshole. He dropped his weapon, which Nick quickly grabbed before Carver could get to it.

"Jesus Christ, what the hell was that?" Carver asked as he turned his head around to find Gemma standing there with a smirk on her face. He tried to stand, but Nick shot out one of his knees.

"What do we do?" Sarah's small voice asked.

"We should tie him up," Carlos suggested.

"Yeah, anyone got some rope?" Luke asked, looking around.

"Look at you, all of you. So lost, so unsure. You got me right in front of you but you don't know what the hell to do with me. You think you've outsmarted me, but without me you are nothing. JUST LOOK AT YOURSELVES!" Carver banged his fist on the ground.

His sudden outburst caused everyone to jump back slightly.

"Ha, if only you could see the looks on your faces. You're afraid of what it might be like out there on your own with no one to guide you. Well, I'll tell you what. You'll die out there, each of and every one of you. The last thing you'll think about is the regret of taking me down. You could have been safe," he looked at Rebecca, "Our baby could have been safe."

Some faces turned to look at her as she embarrassingly looked away.

"That's enough," Luke cut in, taking the rope that he found and tying Carver's arms behind his back.

"Let's go," he said and began to walk away with the rest of the group following behind.

"You're not even going to take a swing at me? Just gonna leave me here to bleed out? I thought I'd taught you better!" he called out as the group got farther and farther away from him.

They hopped off the loading dock one by one and looked out into the parking lot. There were walkers coming from all over, chasing the blaring shopping advertisements. None of them had seemed to notice the group, luckily.

"Okay, here's the plan," Jane said. She walked over to an unsuspecting walker, stabbed its skull, and dragged it back to the group. Everyone looked around, unsure of how successful this idea was going to be. Jane then proceeded to cut down the walker's torso, exposing its nasty guts.

_What the hell? _Everyone thought simultaneously as she began rubbing the walker's innards all over herself, _including _her face.

"The only way we're going to get through this herd is to _be _this herd. If we cover ourselves in their smell, the other walkers won't know the difference," Jane explained. They all understood her thinking, but no one was going out of their way to rub the guts on themselves.

"You better hurry up before they catch a waft of your smell," she warned.

Gemma was the first to go after another close-by walker and kill it, bringing it back to Nick. As she sliced the thing open, everyone else went after their own walker.

"Ugh," she recoiled as the stench from the insides of the corpse hit her. She looked away as she plunged her hand into its stomach and pulled out some intestines.

"You first," she said as she began rubbing the guts all over Nick. He winced when she touched his torso, obviously not healed from the impact it took yesterday.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly as she had him turn around so that she could do his back. Next she worked on his face, being as gentle as she could and avoiding the cuts. Nick helped her rub the entrails over her back as she did her front. Nick smirked as he painted her face with the zombie blood.

"How romantic," he mumbled. Gemma rolled her eyes.

"This is the best first date I've ever been on," she joked back.

"Alright guys, now the best way to do this is to move slow and quietly, like a walker. You're odds are better if you split up," Jane warned.

"Our meeting place is the old historical site just straight back from these woods," Luke announced.

"Let's do this," Nick said to Gemma. They decided to stick together so that Nick could lean on her as he walked.

_This better not get us killed._


	16. You're Safe Now

Gemma's heart raced as she clutched her knife in one hand and Nick in the other. Even with Nick's arm around her she was scared. There were so many rotting corpses bumping into her. Every so often one would seem to look at her suspiciously, but then would move on again towards the loud speakers.

There was no one from her group to be seen. The last person she saw was Luke, or at least she thought it was, since it was only the top of his head. Were they still even going in the right direction? The forest had seemed so close but they had been walking for at least forty-five minutes. Gemma wasn't someone who was normally claustrophobic but this never ending swarm of the walking dead around her made her wanna scream and run as far away as possible.

She shivered and held onto Nick tighter. He kissed the top of her head. "Not much farther," he whispered into her ear.

All the sudden bullets began to ring out as the guards on top of the building used their last defense system they had. Nick ducked his head down, covering Gemma's with his arm. From their far left they heard a scream.

"I'm goin' after Sarah!" they head Luke yell. Nick looked up to see what was going on and saw Luke run after Sarah into the woods.

"Shit," Nick mumbled quietly, "We have to go after them."

"Are you crazy, you can't run in _this _herd with _that _foot?" Gemma said, nodding down at Nick's injured ankle.

"We have to," Nick almost whimpered as he began to pick up the pace. The walkers around them looked at them as they noticed their sudden change in speed.

"Nick, you're gonna get us killed!" Gemma scolded in a hoarse whisper. Nick ignored her implores as he continued chasing after Luke and Sarah.

When they reached the woods, they realized they had no idea which direction Luke had gone.

"I trust Luke, Nick. He'll find his way back. If we just go in any random direction, we'll be the ones who're lost. If he were here, he'd want us to stick to the plan," Gemma said, trying to convince Nick.

"What if they're in trouble?" he asked, looking down at her, "What if they need us but we decided to move on? I can't take that chance."

Gemma gave in, knowing there was no way she would be able to change his mind. "Okay," she finally said.

They had only been walking for twenty minutes when they came across a trailer park.

"He would have hid in here," Nick said. As they got closer, they could see a small pile of walkers banging on the side of one trailer.

"They're in there," Gemma pointed, "But how the hell are we supposed to get to them?" Nick looked around. He let go of Gemma and picked up a dead body.

He nodded towards a truck, "Can you open that door?" he asked. Gemma did as told and watched as Nick positioned the body in the driver's seat. He then picked up a brick and in one hand pushed the body's head into the steering wheel, causing the horn to beep. He took the brick and placed it at the base of the walker's back to hold it down. The pair looked over to see the group of walkers move from the trailer towards the car. Luckily, there was a barrier between them and the truck where Nick and Gemma stood.

Going through another trailer, they were able to make it to the opposite side of the barrier, where the walkers stood. Gemma went up the steps to the trailer's door and tried to open it, but it was locked. She banged on the door.

"Luke!" she called out.

No answer.

Just then the car horn stopped beeping, the walker must have fallen off of the steering wheel. The group of dead turned around and began making their way to Nick and Gemma.

"Shit!" Gemma exclaimed as she tried to use her body weight to slam against the door.

"Watch out," Nick said as he walked up the steps to the trailer door and slammed himself into it, breaking open the door. They rushed inside, closing the door behind them.

"Luke!" Nick yelled as he held the pushed against the door.

"Nick?" Luke called back from a room further down the trailer.

"Get out here, asshole!" Nick shouted.

Luke quickly opened the door to see Nick and Gemma holding back the front door. "Here!" Luke suggested as he pushed a heavy dresser in front of the door. The three backed up from it, panting.

"Where's Sarah?" Gemma asked. Luke looked at the two of them.

"Carlos got shot," he told them. "When the guards were rainin' bullets, he got shot. Sarah freaked out and ran. Now she's back there huddled in a ball. She won't let me even touch her, she just screams."

"Let me go talk to her," Gemma said. She walked into the room and knelt down next to Sarah, who was missing her glasses. She wasn't even sure if Sarah had noticed she was there.

"Hey, Sarah," Gemma half-whispered.

Sarah looked up, "Gemma!" she said, flinging her arms around her.

She was surprised that Sarah had opened up to her that much. They were definitely close, but Gemma never knew Sarah would be so relieved to see her. Gemma rocked her gently in her arms and stroked her hair as Sarah cried into her shoulder.

"He's dead. They killed him," Sarah mumbled into her, "And I saw it, I saw it right in front of me." Sarah began to hiccup while she sobbed. Gemma looked down the hallway and asked Luke for a damp cloth. He nodded and brought one to her. Gemma gently pushed Sarah off her and looked at her in the eyes.

"Don't you give up on me Sarah. That's not what your dad would want you to do. He loved you and would want you to be strong. I want you to be strong. Please, be strong for me." Gemma couldn't help but get teary eyed as she looked at the pain in Sarah's face. She lightly wiped away her tears with the cool cloth.

"I love you, Sarah. I'm your family now, Luke's your family now, Nick's your family now. We're all you family and we'll all protect you. We came here for you."

Gemma jumped as a walker began to bang on the window.

"We're surrounded," said Nick as he walked into the room.

"The only way out is through the skylight," Luke observed, looking up. Gemma stood up with Sarah.

"Oh, Sarah found these outside," Nick said, handing her glasses to her. She smiled as she put them on. Nick walked over to the skylight and reached up but couldn't touch it. "How the hell are we going to get up there?" he asked.

They all looked around for something tall enough to stand on.

"The dresser," Gemma suggested.

"Fuck, okay," he responded. The three young adults walked over to the front door.

"You guys push, I'll hold the door," Gemma said. The other two nodded and began to do so. Gemma threw all of her body weight into the door, holding back the walkers the best she could.

"We're good!" Nick yelled back to her. She ran from the door and it instantly busted open with dead corpses struggling to get over one another. She closed the door to the bedroom behind her and saw Luke pulling Sarah up the skylight. After Sarah was safely on the roof, Luke put his hands back down. Gemma looked at Nick, unsure who should go next.

"Go!" he yelled.

She climbed up on top of the dresser and reached up to Luke. She looked to Nick holding back the door as she made her way through the skylight and up on the roof.

"C'mon, Nick!" Luke ordered.

Nick got up on the dresser and made it on to the roof just as walkers flooded the room below them.

They all sat on the roof, panting.

Gemma laid down on her back and brought her hands to her face and began to laugh. Nick couldn't help but laugh as well. Luke looked back and forth between the two of them.

"What am I missin'?"

This only caused them to laugh even more. Luke looked to Sarah who was smiling and shrugged her shoulders. Gemma sat up again.

"We almost died," She said, out of breath. She looked to Sarah who began to giggle herself.

Luke though about it and began to smile, "Yeah, I guess that's pretty ridiculous." Gemma looked at Nick who was smiling back at her. The sun had completely set.

"So, are we spending the night on the roof?" Gemma asked.

"Yeah, it's seems so," Luke said, "I don't think we'll fall off."

The wind blew.

"It's fucking cold," shivered Nick.

"Looks like there's gonna be a dog pile tonight," Gemma joked.

Nick stood up and walked next to Gemma. "Okay," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

"Nick, I can't breathe," she joked, "Also, who said I'm sleeping with you? I'm cuddling with Sarah." She then scotched over to Sarah and snuggled next to her.

"Luke, do you wanna be cuddle buddies?"

"No."

"What the fuck? Why doesn't anyone like me? Whatever," he said as he scooted back next to Gemma and cuddled with her.


	17. Like Rum on the Fire

There was a scratching noise as the small group slept. It then turned into a banging. No one had seemed to notice as they all huddled close together to keep warm. All the sudden the skylight swung open hard and smacked the roof of the trailer with a loud thud. They all shot up after being woken by the noise. The moans and gurgles of the walkers from the room below them filled the air as they saw fingers poking out of the open skylight.

"Shit, they must have gotten up on the dresser," Luke said, quickly standing up. The rest followed his movement. They knew it wasn't safe to stay any longer.

"Alright, if we head through the forest that way, we should make it back to the meeting point," he instructed. He then jumped off the roof, followed by Nick, who then helped Sarah and Gemma down. Once in the woods, the group slowed down, mainly for Nick's sake. All the running he's done recently hasn't really helped his ankle. He leaned on Luke as they walked.

"How much longer do you think?" Sarah asked.

Luke shook his head, "I really don't know if we're even heading in the right direction, to be honest."

Gemma head perked up as she heard a faint, but recognizable sound: water. She began lightly jogging to her right, following the noise.

"Where're you going?" Sarah asked.

"I think I hear water," Gemma responded, and then a few seconds later, "I found a creek!" she called back to the group.

They all made their way over to the blond haired girl.

"Awesome!" Sarah exclaimed as she bent down to begin drinking.

"Wait, wait, we can't just drink the water. We have to sterilize it by boiling it. Who knows how many nasty lurkers have trudged through this water and filled it with diseases," Nick said. They all looked at him with the same expression. "What? Sometimes I know my shit," he said, a little red in the face.

And so, the group built a fire which they all sat around while the water boiled. There was only the sound of the fire crackling before Sarah piped up, "You know, right now would be the perfect time for one of your songs," she said looking at the two guys.

Gemma lifted her head up, "What?"

Sarah began to giggle at the expressions on Luke and Nick's faces. "They used to sing songs to us around the campfire every once and a while. They we're actually pretty good."

"Only when we're drunk," Nick said, trying to avoid eye contact with Gemma, whose face had lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Why didn't you tell me you could sing?" she asked the boys.

"Cause we knew this was gonna happen," Luke responded with a smirk.

"Won't you sing for me?" Gemma asked. Nick looked back at her. He couldn't help but smile because hers was contagious.

"We don't even have a guitar," he used as an excuse.

"So?" Sarah asked. Nick looked over to Luke who had his face in his hands.

"Okay, one song," he mumbled into his palms. Sarah squealed as Gemma scooted closer to her, both of them staring eagerly at the guys.

"Her eyes and words are so icy  
Oh but she burns," Luke began and Nick joined in,  
"Like rum on the fire  
Hot and fast and angry  
As she can be  
I walk my days on a wire

It looks ugly, but it's clean  
Oh mamma, don't fuss over me

The way she tells me I'm hers and she is mine  
Open hand or closed fist would be fine  
The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine

Calls of guilty thrown at me  
All while she stains  
The sheets of some other  
Thrown at me so powerfully  
Just like she throws with the arm of her brother

But I want it, it's a crime  
That she's not around most of the time

Way she shows me I'm hers and she is mine  
Open hand or closed fist would be fine  
The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine

Her fight and fury is fiery  
Oh but she loves  
Like sleep to the freezing  
Sweet and right and merciful  
I'm all but washed  
In the tide of her breathing

And it's worth it, it's divine  
I have this some of the time

Way she shows me I'm hers and she is mine  
Open hand or closed fist would be fine  
The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine

(Cherry Wine by Hozier) The way their voices complimented each other sent goose bumps along Gemma's arms. It had been so long since she had heard music, it was almost relaxing.

"Another!" Sarah begged. Gemma smiled and nodded her head.

"No," Luke chuckled.

"Please? It's so relaxing," Gemma asked quietly as she rested her head on Sarah's small shoulder. She then lifted her head back up, looking at Nick, "Sing Chasing Cars."

Nick blushed slightly before clearing his throat. As he and Luke sang, Gemma placed her head back on Sarah shoulder and closer her eyes. Sarah swayed slightly to the music and for a moment the word seemed normal again.

But only for a moment.

In mid-song, there suddenly came the sounds of gunshots and faint moans of the dead. Gemma instantly opened her eyes and sat up, looking at the confused faces around her.

"Do you think that's," Nick hesitated, "the group?"

"Sounds like it came from the direction we were headed," Gemma added. Luke paced a bit, scratching the back of his head, something Gemma noticed he does when he's nervous.

"Fuck, it could be. But how the hell are we gonna get to them if they're lurkers after them?" he wondered out loud.

"Is it the herd from Carver's?" Sarah asked, a little shakily.

"Must be a few that followed us," Gemma said. _Can walkers even track people? Maybe it was just coincidence that a few had stumbled onto the group? _"What should we do? Should we go after them? I mean, we gotta help them!" she exclaimed worriedly.

"Alright, we'll go. But we have to be careful," Luke warned as he lead the way.

Gemma saw what looked to be a run-down historical site as she peered through the trees. "I see it," she let them know.

Luke nodded and motioned for them all to be quiet as they approached the clearing. They stopped at the edge of the forest. There were still a few walkers from what they could see, but no one from their group in sight.

"They're gone," Sarah whimpered softly.

They were all in disbelief, how could they be gone? Where did they go? Or… did the worse happen to them? Gemma didn't look at the walkers, not wanting to recognize one. She instead moved closer to Nick, out of habit, and slipped her hand into his. Even though he knew she cared for him, the action caught Nick off guard, leaving him with butterflies in his stomach.

"Maybe we can catch up to them," Gemma suggested with a sadness in her voice.

Nick looked down at the girl. He hated seeing her like this, like she was holding on to the smallest bit of hope she had left.

"We have no idea which way they went, Gemma," Nick said softly to the girl who looked to the ground. As she looked up again, he could see her holding back tears and the tip of her nose start to become red.

"Okay," she whispered as a tear fell from her eye.

He held out his arm and she stepped into him, burrowing her face into his chest as she silently cried. She still held onto his hand and quietly hiccupped from her tears. He cradled her head with his free hand and rested his head on top of hers as he gently swayed. Luke watched as the event occurred. _Maybe they really do care for each other, _he thought to himself.

Sarah stood alone, hugging herself. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost. As soon as Luke got a few steps closer to the girl, she looked up and flung herself into him for a hug. He cared for Sarah. He'd known her for almost a year and thought of her as his younger sister. She didn't cry, but he could tell she needed the comfort. She suddenly looked up at him.

"Are we going to see them again?" she asked innocently.

Luke looked over to Nick and noticed Gemma turn her face to look at Luke, waiting for his response.

"I… I don't know if I can promise we will."


	18. Blanket Forts

The group of now four decided to leave. It had been a long, silent walk. They didn't really have any idea of where they were going. They figured somewhere more south would be ideal; they were all sick of this cold weather. They decided to stick to the roads and follow the sun to make sure they were going the right direction. There looked to be a storm coming soon as the gray clouds filled the sky. The temperature had dropped drastically, so they huddles in pairs to keep warm. Unfortunately, none of them had the appropriate clothing for the weather. The wind blew back their hoods and the snow soaked through their shoes, leaving their socks cold and wet. The last thing they had eaten was a few granola bars that Luke was able to sneak into his pocket before they left Carver's. Their cheeks were flushed with red and their lips losing the pink to them. As they all predicted, it had begun to snow. _Great,_ Gemma thought and then looked over to the rest of her group, who each had the same expression. It was freezing and they had been walking for hours.

"Okay, I'm callin' it. Next house we see we're spending the night in. Looks like this storms only gonna get worse," Luke said, his teeth chattering.

"Good call," Nick responded. Gemma could feel his body shivering next to her. He would probably be warmer huddling with Luke since he was his own size, but he insisted on walking with her. She stood on her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek. He was too sweet to her sometimes.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later they came across a roadside inn. Gemma grinned as she thought about the warm covers on the fluffy beds inside. After checking for any walkers, they surprisingly found none. They used the logs next to a fireplace in the sitting room to build a fire and warm themselves. Gemma took off her shoes and soaked socks, placing them off to the side. She sat on the ground and faced the bottoms of her feet towards the fire. Sarah sat next to her and did the same, giggling. The two girls wiggled their toes as they defrosted; the feeling tickled.

"Found some candles," Nick said as he walked into the room. He carried a large box in his arms. "Actually, lots. Looks like you can never have too many candles."

Sarah looked at Gemma, "It's going to get dark soon. We should find some blankets and bring them down here before we can't see!" Gemma smiled and quickly stood up. "Okay," she said and the two girls ran out of the room in search of the blankets.

Luke walked up to Nick and helped him unpack some candles.

"So, um, I wanted to apologize," he started.

"For what?" Nick asked.

"For… being a dick about you and Gemma. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions too quick. You guys really do seem like a pair. You're my best friend and she's like my little sister. It's just that it was weird at first seeing you two act all," he motioned with his hands, "couple-y."

Nick laughed. "Nah, man, I get it. It would be weird to see you flirt with Sarah, too," he joked.

"No, gross, that's too far," Luke laughed.

"What is?" Gemma asked as she and Sarah entered the room carrying more blankets and pillows then it looked like they could hold.

"Nothing," Luke said. "Got enough blankets there?" he asked.

"You can never have too many blankets," Sarah insisted. Luke playfully threw his hands up in the air as if to surrender.

"Can you guys move the couches closer together and more towards the fire?" she asked, which they did. She and Gemma then began laying blankets on the ground and on top of the couches, creating a fort.

"Finishing touch," Gemma said as she laid some pillows on the ground inside the fort. "There," she said as she stood back up, brushing her hands together.

"A fort?" Luke asked, smiling, but a little puzzled.

"Mmhmm."

Nick and Luke followed the two girls inside the fort. They could only really lay down because of their height, unlike Gemma and Sarah who sat cross-legged.

"Oh, wait!" Sarah exclaimed as she quickly left and returned with four cans of mandarin oranges.

"I found them in the kitchen," she explained while she handed each of them one. They all happily ate their food and sooner or later began joking around about their pasts.

"There was this one time where Nick and I were going on a double-date with some girls when we were in high school," Luke began saying, but couldn't help but laugh before he got the whole story out. Nick's face began to turn pink.

"Hey, okay, let' just get this straight. Luke was the jock senior while I was the wimpy freshman, so consider that while hearing the rest of this," Nick butted in while Luke caught his breath.

"So anyway, we decided to go out to the movies with them, you know, in a dark room... Basically, we weren't planning on watching most of the movie, if you know what I mean."

Gemma looked over to Sarah who looked a little confused. She leaned over to her and whispered it in her ear. Sarah's face instantly turned red as she tried to hide herself behind a pillow.

"So we just bought tickets for a re-showing of Saving Private Ryan, without really thinking about the story itself. So, long story short, while I made out with my girl, Nick had ignored his and intently watched the movie, crying at the end. The girl ended up having to take him home, he was so upset!" Luke laughed.

Gemma playfully punched him in the arm, "Luke, you're awful. That was such a sad movie!"

"I wouldn't know," he joked.

Gemma rolled her eyes.

"How 'bout you, Sarah?" Nick asked to the girl who had emerged from behind the pillow.

She thought for a bit, "I don't know. I don't really remember much from before this whole thing happened." Gemma nodded, understanding. She only remembered general concepts from before, like going to school and celebrating holidays. The apocalypse had been so stressful so far, she thought maybe it was eating away at her slowly, starting with her memories. The only memories she really had were with her sister. With only a three year age difference, they were really close.

"I have one, but it's not funny," Gemma said, thinking about the event in her head.

"That's okay. I like this whole nostalgia feelin' we got goin' on right now," Luke said.

She smiled as she spoke, "When I was in middle school, I decided to participate in the talent show by playing on the piano, and now when I look back on it I have no idea why the hell I did. Anyway, I didn't know how to read sheet music, so I usually just played songs by ear. Well, of course when I went on stage I completely blanked and forgot how to play the song. And so after a few too many awkward seconds, my sister ran out on stage and hummed the melody to the song in my ear so that I would remember the tune. She stayed out on stage and sang along with me so that I wouldn't feel alone."

"You have a sister?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, well, I hope I still do," Gemma said, playing with the ends of her hair.

"What's her name?" Nick asked.

"Adelaide."

"What is with your parents naming their kids such old fashioned names?" Luke asked sarcastically.

"Hey!" Gemma laughed, throwing a pillow at him. "I wanna know what you're siblings names were!"

Luke chuckled, but his smiled slightly dropped. "I had an older brother named Adam, but he died before I was born." Gemma's face fell, regretting what she had asked.

"Oh. I'm sor—"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I didn't know him anyway," Luke said. "Oh, and I forgot about this kid," he said as he knocked Nick's hat off his head. They all laughed a bit before the room got quiet.

Sarah drew circles in the blanket with the index finger before asking, "What do you think is going to happen to Rebecca?" They all looked up, a little taken back by the sudden change in conversation.

"What do you mean? She's gonna have the baby pretty soon, if she hasn't already, if that's what you're asking," Nick answered.

"Yeah, it's just… I heard my dad talking about it to…," she hesitated and looked at Nick before continuing, "Pete, saying he didn't think she would make it through the birth with the conditions we're in." Nick's eyes fell and his smile faded. _Who's Pete? _Gemma thought to herself. He must have been someone close to Nick who had lost their life. She put her hand on his.

"Well… the baby's got three other people to look after it, if that were to happen," Luke said, his voice serious. Sarah stopped drawing circles.

"That baby should be with us right now. We're its family. Rebecca barely knows the other people that are in her group now, how could she feel safe knowing that if she died, the baby would be in their hands?"

Gemma blinked. She didn't know how to react to Sarah's questions, which she didn't even know she would ever hear come out of the girl's mouth. "They're good people, they could raise her baby right. And who's to say Rebecca won't make it through her birth?" Gemma asked, trying to comfort Sarah.

Sarah nodded her head and yawned. Luke started yawning right after her.

"Goddamnit Sarah, now you got me yawnin'," he said, stretching his arms. He let out a deep breath.

"Alright, I'm hittin' the hay. Unfortunately, that means I'm gonna have to take one of these blankets with me," He said, lightly pulling at the "roof" of their fort.

"No! Here, take this one," Gemma said, pulling one off the ground and tossing it at him.

"Thanks he said as he took a pillow with him and crawled out of the fort. Sarah had closed her eyes and laid her head down on a pillow.

"Alright, let's go, Sarah," Luke said, looking at the girl who was pretending she wasn't tired.

"Ugh," she complained as she forced herself up and followed him out of the room.

"Looks like we can make out now," Nick joked, giving Gemma a grin. She rolled her eyes and laid down beside him, resting her head on the palm of her hand.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that to get a kiss from me," she laughed.

"Really?" he teased as he leaned over and placed his lips on hers. She smiled into the kiss and placed her hand on his chest, grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer. He rolled onto his side so that he was facing her completely and gently placed his hand on her lower back, pressing their bodies together. As the kiss got deeper, Gemma felt herself falling on her back, causing Nick to lay on top of her. _Yup, I love him, _she thought to herself. Gemma giggled.

"What?" Nick mumbled.

"Nothing, just never thought my first time would be in a blanket fort," she admitted.

"Me, too," he laughed as he brought their lips back together again…


	19. Content

The next morning, Gemma woke up resting on Nick's bare chest. She gently kissed his skin before she rolled over to put on her clothes. The sun had barely risen, but yet she felt wide awake. As she went to sit up, she felt strong arms pull her backwards. Nick hugged her against his chest.

"Don't leave yet," he said in a groggy voice. Gemma smiled against his skin before looking up at him.

"There's a sunrise," she explained.

He let out a small laugh, "What is with you and the sun?"

"It's beautiful."

"You're beautiful. Can't I just watch you instead?"

Gemma felt herself blush. She still wasn't used to Nick's flirtations and felt butterflies in her stomach every time she was around him. She tried to wiggle her way out of his arms which held onto her tightly.

"Nick," she laughed, "I'm gonna miss the sunrise!"

He kissed her head before letting her go. "Fine, I'll go with you. You're really twisting my arm here," he said as he rolled over to put on his clothes. Gemma rolled her eyes, something she did a lot around Nick.

"You don't have to go."

"No, no, if you insist," he joked before turning his head slightly towards her way and giving a sly smile._ His flirting is just too damn cute, _she thought as she crawled out of the blanket fort.

She walked towards the large bay window in the sitting room and sat on the cushion in front of it. Nick did the same and wrapped an arm around the girl. _His _girl. Gemma rested her head on his shoulder as she watched the way the sunlight caught the freshly snow covered ground.

"Looks like perfect snowball fight snow," Nick inferred, glancing down at Gemma.

"No, no, I think I've spent enough time out in the snow these past few weeks than I would need in a lifetime," she insisted.

"Hey, lovebirds," Luke said as he walked into the room, smirking. Gemma was a little bit embarrassed, but Nick didn't seem to mind. "Did you spend the night down here?" Luke asked, looking at the messy fort.

"Yeah, we kinda just fell asleep after you guys left, 'cause we were too tired to go upstairs," Nick said, gently poking Gemma in the side, which caused her to smile.

"Definitely sleeping on one of the beds tonight, though," Gemma said as she tried to stretch a kink out of her neck. "Is Sarah up yet?" she asked.

"Nah, she's out like a rock."

Gemma stood up and stretched. She folded her arms to keep warm, "What's for breakfast?" she asked.

"Found some oatmeal in the pantry in the kitchen," Luke said, "We could start another fire to boil some water."

"I'll go get the stuff from the kitchen," Gemma said as she walked out of the room.

Luke turned to Nick and raised an eyebrow. "Too tired to go upstairs?" he asked.

Nick blushed and scratched the back of his head, "Shit."

Luke laughed, "Don't worry, didn't hear nothin', but just look at this thing," he motioned towards the fort that's roof was half fallen with wrinkled blankets and pillows scattered everywhere.

"Guess I should clean this up," Nick said as he walked over to the mess and began folding up blankets. Luke helped. "How's your foot doin'?" he asked.

Nick shrugged. "It's better than before, but still hurts like hell when I put too much pressure on it."

"Damn, I don't even know how long it takes for things like that to heal. Probably a few weeks at least."

"Yeah." Gemma walked in with a saucepan full of snow and four packets of flavored oatmeal. Luke helped make a fire and the three waited for the water to boil.

"Two maple and brown sugars and two apple cinnamons," Gemma read the packets.

"Apple cinnamon," Luke said, catching the packet after Gemma tossed it to him.

"Nick?" she asked.

"I don't care," he said, shrugging.

"Well, I want maple and brown sugar," Gemma decided, taking a packet for herself.

"Okay, then I'll have the apple cinnamon," Nick said right away. _Of course he would wait to see if I wanted the apple cinnamon, _Gemma thought as she tossed him his packet.

Sarah entered the room, rubbing her eyes. She sat down next to Gemma and took the oatmeal packet she was handed. "I love this flavor!" she said cheerfully. When the water was done, they ate their food happily. It began to snow again outside, with the wind picking up.

"Now what?" Sarah asked, setting her bowl down on the coffee table. Gemma walked over to a closet and opened it up, revealing a decent selection of games.

"We got Life, Chutes and Ladders, Clue, Checkers, and a deck of cards," she said, turning around with a hand on her hip.

"Clue!" Luke said, "It's the most interesting game in there."

"Do not insult Life like that, I love that game!" Gemma said, walking over with the board game.

"Aha! I was correct!" Luke exclaimed after reading the cards in the "sealed envelope".

"God dammit," Nick said, sitting back, "It was Peacock in the observatory with a candlestick, wasn't it?" he asked the man sitting next to him.

"Yeah, guess it sucks to be so close, but yet so far," Luke teased. Suddenly there was a banging at the door. They all looked at each other.

"Sarah, get down," Nick told her.

Sarah knelt down in front of the couch she was sitting on in order to hide herself from the window. Again, someone pounded on the door. The other three stood up from the couch and pressed their backs against the wall around the door, holding their guns up. Nick quickly looked through the curtains of the window next to the door. "It's a girl," he said, "about our age."

"Does she have any weapons on her?" Gemma whispered.

"Didn't look like it."

"Fuck, its cold out there. We can't just not let her in," Luke said.

Nick looked at Gemma who nodded. He opened up the door and pointed his gun at the young woman. Luke and Gemma peered around the door. It was like time froze still for a moment for Gemma. _No. No, it can't be. _She dropped her gun. Luke and Nick quickly looked over at Gemma, confused. The other woman's face dropped and her hazel eyes filled with tears. Gemma went to open her mouth but nothing came out. She didn't move until the brunette-haired girl took a few steps forward, obviously unsure of how to react to Gemma's presence. Luke put his hand slightly in between the two girls, confused as to why they were acting this way.

"Gemma who's thi—" Nick began before he was cut off by Gemma's shaky voice.

"Adelaide?" The brunette girl stepped closer to Gemma and wrapped her arms around her. The two girls buried their faces into each other's shoulders and fell to the ground, sobbing. Nick and Luke looked at each other. _Gemma's sister?_ They both thought. Adelaide pulled away from her sister and cupped her face in her hands.

"You're alive?" she asked, her voice cracking. Tears ran down Gemma's face as she nodded. She could barely see her sister with her blurry vision. Gemma smiled and began to laugh as she wiped away Adelaide's wavy hair from her face. She rubbed her own face with her shirt sleeve. Sarah walked into the room with her arms wrapped around her waist. She looked at Luke who slightly shrugged his shoulders. The two girls on the floor giggled a bit before standing up again.

"This is my sister, Adelaide," Gemma explained to the other three in the room.

"Hi," the girl standing next to her said shyly.

"I'm Luke, this is Nick, and that's Sarah," Luke introduced with a small smile.

They all sat down together and listened as Adelaide told them her story about how she got here.

"…and my last group got separated about a week ago when a herd of biters showed up," she finished.

"You call them biters?" Gemma asked.

"Yeah, what do you call them?"

"Walkers." "Lurkers." She and Nick said at the same time. She looked over at him and gave him a look causing him to smile. When she looked back Adelaide raised an eyebrow at her. Gemma blushed and looked away. Adelaide laughed and looked over to see Luke staring at her. She was equally as shy as Gemma, so she quickly adverted her eyes.

"You must be starvin'," he said as he stood up, "I'll get you some food." Gemma grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her sister, whose eyes suddenly turned sad.

"Mom and dad…"

"Yeah, I know," Gemma said quietly. Adelaide put a hand on Gemma's.

"What are the odds that I'd find you again?" she asked the blond-haired girl. Gemma's eyes lit up again as she smiled.

"Four years... Shit, you're old now," she laughed.

Adelaide acted dramatically offended, "I'm twenty-five. That is _not _that old."

"I'm twenty-six, Nick's twenty-three," Luke said as he walked in with a can of baked beans. He handed the can along with a fork to Adelaide who gave a small thanks before she began eating.

"I'm sixteen," Sarah chirped.

"I thought you were fifteen?" Gemma asked.

"Yeah, well I am _technically, _but my birthday is in February, so I should be sixteen around now," the young girl explained.

Nick looked out the window and watched snow covered trees swaying in the wind. "Looks like it's gonna be one hell of a storm. We're probably gonna be cooped up in here for a few days," he said. The rest of the group turned to look out the windows and agreed.

"That's why I banged on your door. The cold was awful out there and I could see smoke coming from the chimney," Adelaide explained.

"Speaking of which, you're jeans are soaked and you probably want a dry pair of socks," Gemma said, "Let's go upstairs and see if we can find anything for you to wear. Come on, Sarah." The three girls made their way up the stairs into a nicely decorated hallway with creaky wooden floors.

"I found some clothes in my room this morning that look to be… well all of our sizes," Sarah said. She was right, all three girls were about the same height and body type, except Adelaide was slightly curvier than the other two. Sarah led them two doors down the hallway into a room with a queen sized bed and pale yellow walls. She opened up an old looking dresser and began pulling out the clothes and laying them on the bed.

"Come to think of it, we could all use a wardrobe change," Gemma said, looking at her and Sarah's dirty clothes.

"It's like we're in an 80's montage," Adelaide joked as the trio rummaged through the pile of clothes on the bed. When they were finished, each had a pretty cute outfit on. Sarah wore a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, her brown boots, and a maroon zip up sweatshirt that fit her perfectly. Adelaide found a new pair of also dark skinny jeans, dark brown boots, a black long sleeve shirt, and a green jean jacket that complimented her caramel colored hair. Gemma wore dark green skinny jeans, her lighter brown lace-up boots, a cream long sleeve sweater, and a light blue jean jacket.

"Those jeans match your eyes," Sarah said.

"Really?" Gemma asked, looking down at her pants.

"Yeah, just look in the mirror."

Gemma walked over to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room. She hadn't looked at herself in ages and was honestly a little nervous to see her appearance. She admired her outfit in the reflection and noticed how toned her legs and behind were. She had always been a flat-chested, lanky girl in high school. She didn't expect to see herself actually look "developed". Her hair didn't look half as bad as she expected, with soft waves framing her face nicely. She did look a little tired, but her eyes were still their forest-green color that they'd always been. Adelaide walked up next to her and for the first time in her life, she thought they actually looked related. They had the same round eyes and thick lips. Adelaide's nose was a little thinner, her hair a little wavier, and she was about an inch shorter than Gemma. Gemma put an elbow on her sister's shoulder and stood on her toes.

"Hey, you may be taller than me, but I'm still older than you," Adelaide joked, pushing Gemma's elbow off of her.

"C'mon, let's go," the other girl laughed and they left the room.

"Well, what d'you think?" Gemma said as she dramatically twirled. She bumped into Sarah and almost fell, causing her and the girl to laugh hysterically.

"Nice," Luke said, but he wasn't looking at Gemma or Sarah. He and Adelaide caught each other's stares and blushed. Luke ran a hand through the back of his hair and awkwardly coughed.

Once Gemma and Sarah had caught their breath, they told the guys to go find some new clothes, which they did. As they made their ways down the steps, Gemma whistled, causing both of them to blush. Nick wore a gray sweater, some new jeans, and his old shoes. Luke wore a green long sleeved shirt which Adelaide couldn't help but notice fit him nicely. Gemma nudged her with her elbow and this time raised _her _eyebrow. Adelaide rolled her eyes and looked down at her nails. Gemma smirked and scooted over so that Nick could sit next to her. She rested her head on his chest as he gently played with her hair. She felt so content at that moment. She was surrounded by people that she loved and warmed by the fire with food in her stomach. For once, life was good again.


	20. Closed Eyes

The next day Gemma came down the stairs to see Adelaide and Luke chatting away on the couch, both smiling. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a breakfast bar. Nick walked in and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. Gemma smiled.

"This is not the Nick I remember from the first time I met you," she said.

He laughed and backed off, but not too far away. Gemma turned around and offered a bite of her breakfast bar, which he took. They walked out with Nick's arm around her shoulder into the sitting room. Gemma gave Nick a look as they walked into the room to Luke and Adelaide laughing. Nick gave a small smirk and he and Gemma sat on the opposite couch of the other pair.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Nick asked. Luke looked a little confused. "I mean, after the storm dies down. I know we're heading south, but do we have any idea where we're going?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't really know," he admitted.

"You guys are thinking of heading south?" Adelaide asked.

"Yeah, but we don't even know the conditions down there. Who knows, maybe there are even more walkers thriving down there because of the better weather conditions," Gemma added.

"I've been down there. I was in Georgia for about six months a little while ago. The biters—walkers," Adelaide corrected herself, looking at Gemma, "they seem to migrate, so when you're down there you don't wanna get stuck in between herds. Happened to me once."

"What'd you do?" Luke asked.

"Well, at the time I was part of a pretty strong group and we had found a place to stay while the herds passed by. But if you're out in the open forest, I have no idea how you'd make it." Nick nodded. Sarah groggily joined the group.

"Does anyone even know what state we're in?" she asked. Gemma hadn't really thought about it before. They were obviously close to the mountains, but she couldn't really tell if they were Appalachian or Rocky.

"I assume we're in the New England area, based on the heavy snowfall and the mountains are way too small to be a part of the Rocky mountain range, so they must be Appalachian," Luke said.

"How long do you think it will take us to get to… let's say Virginia? Sounds like a good place," Gemma asked.

"A week and a half at least in these weather conditions," Nick said.

"A weeks good to me," Sarah spoke up.

Gemma looked at her sister. "Sound okay to you?" she asked.

"Yeah, sounds fine," Adelaide said.

The next day, the small group made their way down the snow covered road, with Luke leading the way and Adelaide giggling next to him. Gemma had noticed how quickly their friendship sprouted. It was obvious they had feelings for each other, but Adelaide had assured her it was nothing more than a small crush she had on Luke. Gemma, Nick, and Sarah often joked about the pair's relationship. Gemma thought it was cute seeing the two all flustered around each other.

The snow was about five and a half inches deep, which slowed down their pace a bit. They needed to cover as much ground as they could so that by night they would have a dry area to rest. It had been a pretty big storm that came through so it seemed like they weren't going to have much luck finding a place to sleep that wasn't covered in snow. They had only taken short breaks to rest and eat before they were moving again.

"Can we stop, my legs are tired," Sarah complained form the back of the group.

Luke glanced back at her. "Sorry, Sarah, but you know we can't stop. There's still too much snow on the ground. We'll freeze our asses off tryin' to sleep on it," Sarah grumbled something, but then was quiet again.

A few hours later, Nick killed a squirrel that they ate for dinner. They had brought cans of food with them from the rest stop, but figured they would only use them in dire situations. The sun was almost completely set and the fire they sat around started smoldering. They had tied a rope between four trees and hung some empty cans from it. If any walkers would come near them, the sound of the tin cans rattling would wake them up before it was too late.

"Fire's runnin' out," Luke said as they all quietly stared at it. Nick picked up a handful of sticks form the pile they had made of dry wood and added them to the fire. It grew slightly, but was still too small to provide much warmth.

Nick wrapped his arm around Gemma to keep her warm. She smiled as she dragged her one foot through the snow, making a messy smiley face. She and Nick giggled at how stupid it looked.

Luke looked over to Adelaide, wishing he could do that with her. He didn't have huge feelings for the girl, but maybe it was that he craved the affection that he saw Gemma and Nick have. He had to admit, though, she was beautiful. She really fit her name, Adelaide. The first thing he noticed about her was her long, caramel colored, wavy hair that complimented her hazel eyes so well. She, like Gemma, had adorable dimples when she smiled. He tried to make her smile a lot. Maybe he was being too forward; he didn't want to scare her off. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his tired eyes.

"I agree with Luke; I'm tired," Sarah said.

"Yeah, I guess we should head to bed," Nick said, still grinning from his interaction with Gemma. Luke stomped out the fire as to not attract any unwanted visitors while they were sleeping. As they all curled up on the wet, snowy ground, Luke looked over to Adelaide one last time before trying to fall asleep.

Gemma could barely sleep that night as she laid with her face in Nick's chest and arms bundled up between their two torsos. She could tell he was awake, too, by his unsteady breathing. Adelaide's back was pressed up against hers and she could feel her sister shivering and shuffling her position a little. Sarah was on the other side of Adelaide, and on the other side of her, Luke. It was obvious that no one was getting any sleep, and Gemma was worried they were all going to get sick from the combination of the temperature it was and the wet snow soaking through their clothes. Her toes had already gone numb. She was sure it had only been a few hours at most since they had decided to go to bed.

Gemma suddenly sat up, causing Nick to lift his head up and look at her. Adelaide rolled onto her back with a confused expression on her face, which caused Sarah to notice, followed by Luke.

"Nobody's getting any sleep, and I'm not gonna just sit here and freeze my ass off. I'm building another fire, even if it does attract walkers," Gemma explained as she stood up and walked towards the old fire pit. She began laying sticks on top of each other the way her dad had showed her when she was younger and lit the fire with a lighter from her backpack. She sat down and brought her knees to her face, slowly warming up with the growing fire.

Adelaide sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her sister. Gemma laid her head on her shoulder and her eyes began to fill with tears. She was tired and uncomfortable and all she could think about were her parents. She could still remember their voices, their laughs, and the smiles on their faces. She didn't want to think about the last time she saw them, but the image kept replaying over and over in her mind. Adelaide knew what Gemma was thinking and stroked her younger sister's hair. She thought of a song that their dad used to sing to them when they were little. Adelaide smiled at the memory before softly singing the last line of the song, "I hope you don't mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is now you're in the world." Gemma smiled as tears ran down her cheeks and landed on her knees. She hadn't thought about that song since before the apocalypse.

"You still remember?" she asked. Adelaide smiled and nodded.

"I also remember all of the other embarrassing songs we used to sing," she joked.

"Oh, God…" Gemma said as she thought about them singing at the top of their lungs when their parents weren't home.

"Oh, so you sing, _too_?" Nick asked with a grin as he scooted up next to Gemma.

"No, it's different with us 'cause we're no good. You and Luke actually have nice voices," Gemma quickly explained as she wiped the tears off her face.

"Thought Adelaide sounded pretty good jut then," Nick said. Adelaide smiled shyly, looking down. Luke and Sarah sat down across from them around the fire.

"Yeah, you made us sing, we'll make you sing," Luke said.

"We don't want to attract anything," Gemma said, shaking her head.

"Stop making excuses. You're singing will attract them just about as much as this fire," Sarah said, grinning the same as Nick.

"Why not you, Sarah?" Gemma teased back.

"I asked first."

"No."

"Someday I will hear you sing," Nick said, lightly poking Gemma in the side.

"Don't hold your breath."

Nick laughed, but didn't push it any further. Luke coughed, but as he did there seemed to be a shuffle in the bushes around them. Adelaide dropped her arm from around Gemma and sat up straighter.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered.

Everyone got quiet as waited to see if they would hear it again. A low growl came from the bushes behind Sarah. She froze as everyone else quietly grabbed their weapons. The creature growled again, but suddenly stopped and ran away, whimpering.

"What the hell was that?" Luke asked. Sarah opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a walked came up from out of the bushed, lunging toward her. The thing stumbled over the roped tied between the trees, but quickly got up again. Sarah screamed as she scrambled away. Luke pulled her up and pushed her behind him. He grabbed his knife and aimed for the walker's skull, but the corpse unknowingly knocked the weapon out of his hand as he dove at him. Luke fought to keep the walker off him as he fell to the ground with it on top of him.

Nick ran past Sarah and grabbed the back of the walker's shirt, throwing him off his friend. He then took his own knife and stabbed its head, causing dark brown blood to splatter against his hand and lower arm.

Everyone sighed in relief. Gemma went over to Nick to make sure he was alright and Adelaide did the same to Luke. No one even noticed when something else moaned from the woods, this time closer to Sarah.

They all turned around when they heard Sarah scream to see a dead corpse grab the girls arm and bring it towards its mouth.

"NO!" Gemma shouted as she ran to save the girl, but it was too late. The walker had bit through Sarah's forearm before Gemma stabbed its skull. The once again dead corpse dropped to the ground. Sarah's face showed pure horror but nothing came out of her mouth.

"Sarah…" Gemma cried as she held the girl's arm. Everyone was surrounding the young girl as Gemma laid her on the ground. "What do we do?" Gemma sobbed. She sat on her knees with Sarah's head resting in her lap.

"Can we cut it off?" Adelaide asked, running her hands through her hair.

"No, please!" Sarah choked out. Her chest dropped up and down quickly as she breathed shallow breaths.

Luke began pacing around. He placed his hands over his eyes. "FUCK!" he shouted.

"We don't have anything to cut it off with. If we use our knives, it'll be slow and painful. She'll lose too much blood," Nick explained.

Sarah looked up to Gemma with tears streaming down the sides of her face. Gemma brushed the girl's bangs back and held her closer in her arms. "I'm so sorry, Sarah," she whispered as she rocked her. Her tears dripped off her own face onto Sarah's, mixing with hers.

Luke sat down on the other side of the girl and looked her in the eyes. His face was full of pain as he watched Sarah's eyes slowly close and her chest stop rising.

**(A/N):**

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been posting as much as I usually do, I've just been busy with school and work. I know the last few chapters have been slow and boring, so I had to throw this in there at the end to make up for it (please don't hate me!). I promise it will get more interesting in the future, so please continue to read and review! Thanks!


	21. You Had Me Worried

It had been two days and no one had barely spoken a word. The silence was filled with their thoughts racing around, replaying the scene over and over again, and wishing they had done something different. Sarah was an innocent girl who didn't deserve to live in this world. Gemma tried to believe that, but no matter how many times she spoke the words in her head, she couldn't. Even though Sarah was at peace now, her time could have been longer. _I was supposed to protect her. I promised her I would protect her. How could I just let her slip through my fingertips like that?_ Gemma put a hand on her forehead, squinting her eyes as she tried to subdue the pain from the headache she was getting.

"You alright?" Nick asked quietly.

"Yeah, just a headache. It just sucks that we don't have any ibuprofen," she answered, dropping her hand from her forehead. Nick took her hand and squeezed it.

"I know this is hard for you. Hell, it's hard for me. But we can't slow down, especially now. We gotta keep our heads straight so that we can get out of this permanent winter," he said, looking around at the muddy road with the occasional patches of snow that hadn't melted yet.

They were silent for a moment.

"How long has it been?" Gemma asked, looking straight ahead.

"How long since what?" Nick asked.

"Since I met you." Nick thought about it. He remembered it had been late autumn the day he found Gemma in a tree. Just a few days ago Sarah said she thought it was February. "I'd say about four months," he said.

"Huh, feels like forever," She said, looking up at him. He smiled and kissed her hand. _And there go the butterflies… _Gemma thought to herself. Adelaide, who was ahead of them, suddenly turned around and grinned.

"Gemma look!" she said, pointing to a small sign further down the road. Gemma squinted her eyes but couldn't make out what it said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It says Philadelphia in 30 miles. We're so close, we could go home!" Adelaide exclaimed. Gemma's smile dropped and she looked down.

"No." Adelaide stopped walking.

"Why?" she asked.

"I don't wanna know what it looks like now. I just wanna remember it how it used to be: happy and not part of this hell." Gemma said.

Adelaide's shoulders dropped.

"But we're so close," Adelaide whispered, her voice cracking. Gemma didn't look at her sister. She didn't want to see the pain in her eyes that she knew would cause her to change her mind.

For a while in the beginning of the apocalypse she planned on returning home. It wasn't until she was with another group member that visited their own home did she realize how it would break her. When they got to their house they fell to their knees and sobbed because of how abandoned it looked. They never went inside because they could see the blood smears on the windows and hear the moans coming from inside. If Gemma went back home she knew she would lose it. The only thing holding her together now was the little hope that the world could change and go back to how it used to be. If she saw the only thing in her head that was still pre-apocalypse now post-apocalypse, her heart would break and she would be done with the world. Adelaide turned back around and caught up to Luke. Gemma watched as Luke put an arm around the upset girl.

The only sound was the crunching of their feet on the ground. Nick cleared his throat.

"You know, if I had the chance to see my house again, I would. All of the pictures and the familiarity of it would be more comforting than discouraging. I know it's scary to think about, but maybe Adelaide's right. Maybe we should go back to where you used to live. We've been in this apocalypse for so long, don't you think it will be refreshing to see it again?" he asked.

Gemma didn't say anything. They continued walking.

Nick was about to say something again when Gemma interrupted him.

"I used to think that way, but I saw someone go through it. When they saw their old house, they completely broke down. I don't want to go through that and I don't want my sister to go through that."

She stopped walking suddenly and held onto Nick's arm tightly.

"Whoa, you okay?" he asked as he held her shoulders steady. Luke and Adelaide turned around. Gemma squinted her eyes tightly.

"I just felt really light headed just then and—," she stopped, turned away from Nick, and vomited. Adelaide jogged over and put a hand on her sister's back, letting Nick step back. She pulled Gemma's hair behind her head as the shaking girl threw up again.

"Sorry," Gemma whispered, obviously embarrassed.

"No, no, just get it out," Adelaide said as she rubbed her back.

Gemma leaned back up. "I think I'm good. I don't know what the hell that was."

Luke scratched the back of his head and glanced at the girl. "Shit, we're not all going to get sick, right?" he asked. Adelaide shot a look at him before turning back to her sister.

She put a hand on her forehead. "Hm, you don't feel hot. Maybe it was something you ate," she thought out loud, though she didn't say what she was really thinking. Gemma nodded and looked at Nick who was staring at her with sympathetic eyes. She was really tired and he could see it so he offered to carry her. At first she hesitated, but gave in.

A few hours later when Gemma was fast asleep in his arms, Adelaide slowed down and walked next to Nick. "She's out like a rock," she laughed.

Nick smiled. "Yeah, she fell asleep right away," he said.

Adelaide looked at the sleeping girl. She looked so peaceful. "How long has she been feeling like this?" she asked.

"Well, she hasn't thrown up until today, but she's been complaining about having headaches for a few days now. You don't think it's a migraine? She said she used to get them a lot when she was younger," Nick said.

"No, trust me, she would know if it was a migraine. They hurt like hell and any sound or light," she said as she looked up at the bright sun, "only makes it worse."

Nick nodded and looked down for a few seconds before looking straight ahead again. It was quiet between the two for a minute.

"Nick, there's no way of knowing for sure right now, but I think she could be…" Adelaide began, but she couldn't finish the sentence. "Never mind," she said at last.

"I know," he said. He looked at the shorter girl next to him. Adelaide was surprised.

"Oh," was all she could say.

Nick looked forward again. "I recognized the symptoms. We had a woman in our old group who went through the same thing. Headaches, nausea, tiredness," he said as he looked down at Gemma.

"Do you think she knows?" Adelaide asked.

"I don't know. She wasn't part of our group until the woman was already heavily pregnant, so she wouldn't know the signs," Nick said. Adelaide nodded and sighed.

"We don't know for sure. Hell, we could all wake up tomorrow feeling as shitty as her and realize it really was a stomach bug. We should wait to tell her," she said.

"Yeah," Nick agreed, "So, are we actually gonna go to your old house? We should be on the outskirts of the city by now."

Adelaide thought for a second before speaking. "No. She's right. I don't wanna see what it looks like now. And if we do go, it'll only upset her. Plus, the further we go into the city, the more dangerous it'll be. I'm sure it's crawling with biters."

"Hey guys!" Luke called to them, jogging their way. He had gone up ahead of them to scope out what was there. "Found a small neighborhood with a few houses that doesn't look too bad. We could spend the night in one of 'em," he said when he had finally reached them.

Adelaide threw her arms up in the air. "Thank GOD! I'm so sick of sleeping on the ground!" she exclaimed. Luke laughed at the brunette and looked over to see Gemma still cradled in Nick's arms.

"She's still passed out?" he asked, surprised. He noticed a small smile curve on the edge of her mouth. He began to chuckle.

"What?" Nick asked.

"Nothin', just think you got yourself a faker there," Luke said with a grin. Nick felt Gemma try to hold back a laugh against his chest. He stopped walking and looked down at her.

"Really?" he asked her. Gemma couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. Nick couldn't help but chuckle himself; Gemma's laugh was contagious.

She burrowed her face deeper into his chest. "You're warm… and I'm lazy," she explained.

"All right, my arms are numb. I gotta put you down," he said. After he set her down, he dramatically rubbed his arms. Gemma scoffed and put a hand on her hip.

"Oh come on, I'm not _that _fat!" she said, playfully punching him in the arm.

"Ow," he whined, now rubbing his shoulder where she "punched" him. Gemma rolled her eyes. She pointed and shook her head at Luke who was laughing next to Adelaide. He put his hands up in defense. They all laughed as they started walking towards the neighborhood, with Luke leading the way.

Gemma looked at Nick who smiled his big, goofy, adorable smile. "To my defense, I had only just woken up when Luke yelled at the top of his lungs to us. I'm surprised he didn't attract any walkers," Gemma teased, giving Luke a side glance.

Nick and Adelaide exchanged a look of relief, both glad that Gemma hadn't heard their conversation.

Nick looked at Gemma's body, unable to imagine her _pregnant_. She had a small frame that looked in no way able to push out a nine pound baby on its own. What if that happened? What if she died giving birth? What if the baby died inside of her… would it, too, turn into a walker and kill her from the inside out? His heartbeat quickened with the unwanted thoughts.

Gemma looped her arm around his and laid her head on his shoulder, but quickly lifted it off again when she felt him tense. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked with a worried expression on her face.

"Y-yeah," he said, not looking at her.

She tried to joke with him. "I didn't get you sick, did I?" she asked with a small smile.

He forced out laugh and barely attempted a smile.

_What is up with him? He was just laughing around with me a minute ago, _Gemma thought to herself. She decided to give him some space and dropped her arm form his. She folded her arms to keep herself warm.

She watched Luke and Adelaide flirt with each other a few feet ahead of her. They both swore it was only a friendship, but obviously they felt differently. Gemma was happy that they'd clicked so quickly. She didn't want Luke to feel like the third wheel around her and Nick. She noticed out of the corner of her eye Nick looking at her.

She looked up at him with an expression as if to ask, "What?" His blue eyes looked a little sad. Maybe he was thinking about Sarah, or his mom, or anyone that he had lost these past few years. Nick wrapped his arm around her and pulled him towards him. Without saying a word, he kissed her forehead and then continued walking. His arm slid down to her waist, resting his hand on her hip. She didn't know what kind of mood he was in, but she didn't mind the affection. In fact, Gemma was spoiled with it. She never expected Nick to be that kind of guy in the first few weeks of meeting him. He even told her he wasn't much of a romantic. _Liar_, she thought to herself, smirking.

They had reached the small neighborhood Luke was talking about earlier. It looked like a ghost town, making Gemma uncomfortable. It was always weird for her to see places that once thrived with life now so vacant. They chose a faded, yellow house at the end of the cul-de-sac that looked to be in the best shape.

"Cute," Adelaide said as they approached it. Gemma nodded in agreement.

It was an older house, probably built in the early twentieth century. It had a small porch in the front and a narrow hallway with stairs when that welcomed them when they opened the front door. Gemma walked over to some photos on the walls. There was a picture of a small family posing on the beach with two small dogs. Another was of the two young children from the previous photo building a snowman twice their size. Gemma chuckled at the sweet picture. Adelaide nudged her with her elbow lightly.

"C'mon, we gotta search the house," she said. Gemma nodded and followed her to the back of the house.

Nick and Luke we're upstairs searching the bedrooms. There looked to be a guest bedroom, a kid's bedroom with bunk-beds, and a master bedroom. There were two bathrooms, and as expected, no running water. There didn't seem to be much of any signs of other survivors ruffling around the house, looking for supplies.

"We got lucky," Luke said as he opened a hallway closet to reveal a few sleeping bags.

"Bingo," Nick said from an open door down the hallway. He had opened the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and found some generic cold and flu medicine, pain relievers, and bandaging supplies.

"Nice," Luke said, walking into the bathroom with the sleeping bags in his hands. Nick took the medicine and put it in his bag. He followed Luke back downstairs.

Adelaide and Gemma were standing in the hallway again, looking at the different pictures. "Downstairs is clear," Gemma said, turning around and facing the guys coming down the stairs.

"Found some medicine and sleeping bags," Luke said.

"Awesome," Adelaide said, walking up and taking one from his hand to examine it. "Seems to have held up. No holes or anything," she observed. She looked up at Luke with her bright eyes and smiled. Luke couldn't help but stare into them. He blushed and looked away when he realized what he was doing. Gemma raised an eyebrow and tried to hold back a giggle, causing Adelaide to roll her eyes.

"Let's start a fire," Luke said, trying to change the subject.

A few hours later they were all sitting together in the living room after eating their dinner of canned beans they had found in the kitchen. Gemma yawned.

"Okay, who gets which room?" she asked as she stretched her arms. Luke and Adelaide looked around awkwardly. Nick cleared his throat.

"Okay, if no one's gonna call it, we're taking the master bedroom," he decided.

"Uh, I guess I'll take the kids room," Adelaide said quickly.

"You can have the guest bedroom. The bed's bigger, it'll be more comfortable," Luke suggested.

"Which is exactly why _you _should be sleeping in it. You won't fit in a bunk-bed," Adelaide argued.

Gemma and Nick exchanged a glance. "Okay, we're hitting the hay. 'Night!" Nick said as he stood up. He pulled Gemma off the couch and they went upstairs.

It was quiet and obviously awkward between the two that were left. Luke scratched the back of his head. "Uh, yeah I guess it makes more sense for me to sleep in the guest bed," he hesitated, "I mean, um… if you want… if you would be more comfortable, you could sleep with me."

Adelaide gave him a look.

"Oh, wait, no I meant sleep in the same _bed _with me," he stammered. Adelaide blushed at his offer but couldn't help but laugh at how flustered he was. She decided that if she was going to have the opportunity to sleep in a bed, she was going to have a good night's sleep in one that was made for her size and not a child's.

"Sure," she said after a few seconds.

Luke's face lit up. "Yeah, okay," he said, standing up. He cleared his throat as he followed Adelaide upstairs. When they got to the room, Adelaide sat on the edge of the bed and kicked off her shoes. Luke just stood by the door, unsure of what to do. She looked up at him as she took off her jacket.

"What?" she asked. "Nothin'," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Um, I don't usually sleep with a shirt on. Do you mind?" he asked.

Adelaide blushed and crawled under the covers before shaking her head 'no'. He went to the other side of the bed and pulled off his shirt. Adelaide faced the opposite direction to give him privacy and to hide her red face. Luke crawled under the covers and rubbed his face with his hands. "

Goodnight," Adelaide's small voice came from next to him. He dropped his hands.

"'Night," he said back.

They both lay still for what felt like the longest time, neither getting a wink of sleep. Finally Adelaide sighed, knowing she just had to get this off her chest so that they could both get some well-deserved rest. She rolled over and faced Luke, who opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Listen, I know this is uncomfortable with you, and is for me, too. But we gotta get over it, or else I'm not going to be able to sleep at all tonight."

"I'm fine," he lied.

"Yeah, and you've been in the same position for the past hour," she said.

Luke smiled at her remark.

Adelaide closed her eyes for a few seconds before blurting out, "Okay, I know this will make you feel really awkward around me, but if I don't say it, I won't be able to get any shut eye tonight." she sighed, "I… I like you."

She quickly rolled back over and brought the covers up to her face. Luke took a second to process what she had just said.

"Wait… what?" he asked, sitting up on his arm.

Adelaide mumbled something under the covers.

Luke gently pulled the covers down from her face. She blew a few wavy stands off her face and looked up at him. He got lost in her beauty. The way the moonlight coming through the window softened her face and made her eyes glow bright was irresistible. The waves of her hair draped delicately on the pillow and her shoulders. He noticed her look at his lips and knew they both wanted the same thing.

He slowly brought his face down to hers and gently pecked her lips. Her body stayed still and he was worried he had misread her signals. He felt embarrassed and was about to pull away when she grabbed the back of his head and brought their lips together again.

Her actions caught Luke off-guard and had to put his other hand on the other side of Adelaide's torso to keep his balance. Their kisses were quick and passionate. Adelaide ran one hand through his hair and the other along his back. All of the feelings and flirtations between them came out and she moaned into the kiss. Luke smiled as he moved from her lips to her jaw, giving her small kisses until he reached the crook of her neck, allowing Adelaide to catch her breath. Her heartbeat raced with adrenaline and her senses were on fire...

The next morning the two were fast asleep. Adelaide was laying on her stomach with her head on Luke's chest. His one arm was wrapped around her and his chin resting on the top of her head. It was late morning, and very unlike the two to sleep in this late.

There was a pounding at the door that quickly woke them up. They were confused for a moment where they were as they tried to grasp their surroundings.

"Hey, wake up, it's almost noon. We're gonna be heading out soon… with or without ya," they heard Nick tease from the other side of the door.

Adelaide pulled the covers up around the two and Luke laughed a bit. He rubbed his eyes and thought about the night before. Everything was in the moment and while he enjoyed it, he hoped it wouldn't make things awkward between them now.

Adelaide leaned over the side of the bed to pick up her clothes. She grabbed Luke's jeans and tossed them on his face.

"Thanks," he said groggily and the two quickly got dressed. They made their ways down the stairs and found Nick and Gemma in the kitchen filling the bags with cans of food from the cabinets. Gemma greeted them with a raised eyebrow.

"Get enough sleep?" she asked. Adelaide looked away from her sister's eye contact and fidgeted with a button on her jacket.

"Yeah, it was so comfortable sleeping on a mattress for once that I didn't even realize how late we'd slept in. Sorry," she said.

Luke had already walked over and started to help fill the bags.

"What's for breakfast?" Adelaide asked. Nick tossed her a can of beans, "Looks like these are all that's left in the house that hasn't spoiled yet." She nodded and used a can opened she found in a drawer to open the can. Instantly a whiff of the beans hit her and everyone around her. Gemma made a disgusting face and brought a hand up to her mouth.

"That smell is gonna make me throw up," she said. Nick looked over to Adelaide who looked a little worried.

"I'll go eat this in another room," she said before walking out.

Nick zipped up his bag and threw it around his shoulder as he followed the girl. When they were in the living room, Adelaide kept her voice low as she spoke to Nick.

"Okay, this can't be a coincidence. I'm feeling fine, you seem like you're feeling fine, Luke seems like he's feeling fine. This isn't a stomach bug," she said.

They heard Luke's muffled voice in the kitchen, "You better not throw up on me."

Nick rubbed his eyes and sighed.

They could hear the door from the kitchen to the backyard open and Luke say, "Better out there than in here." Nick sat down on the couch to collect his thoughts. Adelaide ran a hand through her hair and walked back to the kitchen.

"I have no idea why but that smell made me so nauseas," Gemma said after she came back into the kitchen. Adelaide quickly finished her meal and grabbed her backpack.

"Are you okay to go?" she asked Gemma who nodded.

They were on the road again. It was still cold, but luckily not freezing. Gemma was actually pretty warm in her sweater and jean jacket. She was walking with Luke and Adelaide because Nick was in a mood again. They had found a sign on the side of the road with a map and found a general route they would follow. They were heading down to Virginia's mountains. They figured steering clear of the cities was best and since they've been in the mountains for the past few months, they we're used to them.

It was midday and so far they had only encountered a few walkers. Nick wasn't letting Gemma kill any herself, though. She couldn't understand why he suddenly had been acting so strange. Whenever she asked him about it, he would give her an indirect answer like, "If I'm closer to the lurker, I should be the one to kill it." It was putting her in a bad mood and she snapped at him for the first time. She immediately regretted it, but she didn't apologize. Nick needed to know how he was making her feel. Since the incident, they hadn't been talking to each other. Nick walked with Luke up ahead and Gemma behind with her sister. She tried to think of another subject, so she brought up Luke.

"So… did something happen with you and Luke last night?" Gemma asked.

Adelaide looked a little embarrassed to hear her sister be so forward and motioned for her to be quiet. Gemma giggled and waited for her answer. Adelaide rolled her eyes and gave in.

"Okay, yes, we made out a bit… and... we slept together," she whispered. Gemma's eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped.

"What?!" she exclaimed. Luke and Nick looked back at them, but Adelaide waved at them to turn back around.

"Shhh!" she told Gemma, but they both ended up laughing.

"Wow, that was faster than expected," Gemma whispered.

"What?" Adelaide asked.

"Nick and I had a bet to see how long it would take you guys to hook up. We expected it to be sometime soon, but not _that _soon. I mean, now that I think about it again, you were sleeping in the same room. What else should I have expected?" the blond haired girl teased.

Adelaide playfully shoved her sister and they burst out laughing again. The guys turned around again.

"Okay, seriously, what am I missin'?" Luke asked.

"You aren't missing anything," Gemma answered. He looked confused at first but then realized what she meant and blushed bright red. Adelaide was leaning on Gemma and hid her face in her shoulder. Nick was really out of the loop, but Gemma's wink at him let him know she'd tell him later.

About a half hour later they had decided to take a break for lunch. Before Luke opened his can, he looked over to Gemma.

"You good?" he asked. She rolled her eyes and nodded.

"I feel fine now, just shitty the past few mornings," she said, opening up her own can.

Suddenly she stopped opening her can as she thought about what she just said. The word passed through her mind. _Pregnant? _No, no she couldn't be. She thought about the classic signs of an early pregnancy. Morning sickness, headaches, tiredness, stronger sense of smell. It could have all been coincidence, but what were the odds? What would she tell Nick? She didn't even know for sure if she was. She couldn't tell him until she knew for sure; she wouldn't want to scare him.

"Gemma?" Nick asked quietly. She jumped at the sound of his voice, but quickly looked at him and smiled. She finished opening her can and began eating before he could ask her anything.

"We should be in Virginia in a few days. We're goin' to have to pass through some suburbs to get to the mountains quicker. Or, we could stick to the rural areas and go around the cities, but that'll take longer. I'm fine with either way, though," Luke said.

"Maybe going through the suburban area would be better. There would be more buildings, more houses, and more supplies. We really need to find some drinking water because most of the snow has melted and I don't think there's any creeks nearby," Adelaide pointed out.

"Agreed," Gemma said with a mouth full of beans.

"Chew your food much?" Adelaide teased.

Gemma smiled and swallowed, "Sorry."

Once they we're walking again, Gemma pulled Adelaide aside out of hearing range of the guys.

"What's up?" she asked. Gemma felt a little uneasy telling her sister, but she needed to confide in someone.

"I've been thinking about how I've felt the last few days, and I know this is going to sound stupid, but I keep thinking of the classic signs and—"

"What do you wanna tell me?" Adelaide asked, cutting her sister off.

"I think I'm pregnant."

Gemma half expected her sister to blow up on her right then and there, but instead she just calmly said, "I know."

"You know?" Gemma asked.

"Yeah, when I felt your forehead yesterday after you threw up, you didn't feel hot. I knew something was up," Adelaide explained. "Nick knows, too."

"_What?!"_ Gemma almost screamed. "No— how- he can't—he's going to be so upset!" Gemma blurted out all at once.

Adelaide put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, it's okay. Well, it's not _ideal_, but it's not the end of the world."

Gemma felt tears sting her eyes. All of this was hitting her at once and she felt like she was going to pass out. "I don't feel good," she said groggily and then everything went black.

When she woke up, she was on the ground. The sun was shining bright, but a figure walked over and blocked it out of the way. She rubbed her temple with her thumb and index finger and closed her eyes again.

"Hey," she heard Nick's voice say softly. She opened her eyes and he was leaning over her. Gemma looked at him, confused as to why she was laying there.

"You fainted a few seconds ago. You're okay, though," he explained. She tried to sit up, but her arms were shaky. Nick helped her to her feet again.

Adelaide put her hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "You had me worried there for a second," she said.

Gemma gave a reassuring smile. "I'm fine now, thanks."

Adelaide dropped her hands and walked over to talk to Luke to give Gemma and Nick some privacy.

Gemma looked at the ground and Nick cleared his throat.

"So I know this is scary and more than we're prepared for, but we'll get through it," he said.

Gemma looked up at his blue eyes and saw the softness in them.

"And, yeah, of course I'm worried. I'm worried about you, worried about the baby… hell, I'm worried about me," he said with a small chuckle. "It's going to be harder than we can imagine and I'll be more stressed than ever. But there's no one else I'd rather go through this with," he finished.

Gemma was so overwhelmed with emotion and she felt like she was going to cry.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier today. I didn't mean it, I've just been really emotional lately," she said, dabbing at the tears in the corners of her eyes.

Nick smiled and kissed her. Gemma felt butterflies in her stomach like she always did whenever he was being adorable.

"I love you," she said, hugging him.

"I love you, too."

**A\N:**

Hey guys! Hoped you liked this chapter. I made it super long because I felt bad since it's been so long since I've updated and because it's the finale of this series. I will be making another one soon so don't worry! Have a Nice Day! ~WalkingDeadCrazy


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